A Review on Packaged Drinking Water, Quality Regulations and Public Health: Exploring Potability and Safety Gap Implications for Public Health in Nigeria

Background: Many Nigerians in towns and villages depend on packaged water for their daily water need. Contaminated water is a major source of distribution of pathogens. The increasing prevalence of water borne diseases has created a need to explore the state of packaged water meant for public consumption and underline the gaps for interventions.

Objective: This study discussed the state of packaged water in Nigeria to generate evidence and information for interventions, planning, and policy towards the provision of potable drinking water for the public.

Methods: The study was a narrative overview of relevant literature from verifiable sources published in the English Language and lasted from January 2015 to April 2017. Literature search utilised PubMed, Medline, Embase and Google Scholar to identify studies that explored the quality of packaged water. The search terms included potable water, packaged water, quality, regulations, pathogens and Nigeria, used individually and in series where necessary, with relevant link words and truncations. We used cross-referencing to identify additional articles. Only articles published in the English Language with standard methods were included in the study.

Results: Over 4.6% of Nigerians consume water packaged in sachets or bottles. A bacteriological survey of packaged water in western Nigeria showed contamination with Salmonella species and/or Escherichia coli in 94 out of 108 samples. Out of 11 sachet and 6 bottled water brands randomly selected from commercial sellers during a study in Nsukka, south-east Nigeria, two bottled water brands met the zero criterion for presence of coliforms as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). Other brands of sachet and bottled water had varying levels of total coliforms, with the highest levels of 14/ml and 29/ml seen in 1 bottled and 1 sachet brand.

Conclusion: Packaged drinking water for commercial consumption in Nigeria has good physical properties but not totally free from contaminants and pathogens.