An assessment of sachet water quality in Zaria Area of Kaduna State, Nigeria

In this study, Physico-chemical analysis of 21 brands of sachet water packaged within Zaria metropolis was evaluated to compare their compliance with World Health Organisation (WHO) and Nigerian Industrial Standard (NIS) threshold limits using standard analytical methods. The parameters evaluated include: colour, taste, odour, pH, chloride, potassium, calcium, electric conductivity, oxygen demand (OD), biological oxygen demand (BOD) and total dissolve solid (TDS) while coliform counts were only determined for sixteen brands using standard methods. The results from the laboratory analysis showed that all samples were tasteless, colourless and odourless; most of the physico-chemical parameters conform with WHO and NIS permissible limits except coliform count in which 100% of the sachet did not conform to the WHO threshold limits. Only 25% of sachet water did not conform to NIS threshold limits. The t-test result reveals that there is no significant difference between the sachet water properties with the WHO and NIS standard.  The results of this study indicate that sachet drinking water produced or sold in Zaria is relatively of good quality for human consumption but there is need to improve the biological treatment to perfect its portability. Key words: Sachet water, analysis, Zaria, Kaduna State.