Water Availability and Purity of Water Used in 14 Perinatal Units,

Abstract

Summary: Water availability and the degree of purity of the available water were investigated in seven delivery rooms and seven newborn units located in Oyo and Kwara States. Only two of these 14 perinatal units had abundant and regular water supply, but in the remaining 12 units, the water supply was scanty and ii regular. The mean coliform count of water used in the seven delivery rooms was 700,143 colonies per rooml (range, 11,000– 1.7 million), while the mean coliform count of water used in the newborn units was 606,171 colonies per 100ml (range 3,200-1.5 million). By WHO standards, the water used in all the fourteen units was too heavily polluted to be used as potable water. In eleven units, the water being used was too polluted to be acceptable even as raw water capable of being treated to tolerable levels of purity by conventional treatment methods.