article · Journal of Environmental Science and Health Part A
An investigation into the bacteriological quality of hospital effluents and urban rivers in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, evaluated the prevalence of faecal indicator bacteria. Across sampling periods in 2014 and 2015, researchers quantified Escherichia coli and Enterococcus in wastewater from three hospital outlets as well as in upstream and downstream river water and sediment. The hospital effluents exhibited very high concentrations of both bacterial indicators. Receiving river systems demonstrated substantial spatial and temporal variations, with bacterial levels in some river water and sediment samples exceeding those observed in the direct hospital discharges. Polymerase chain reaction analysis of human-specific Bacteroides demonstrated that over ninety-eight percent of the detected bacteria originated from human sources. These findings confirm that untreated or poorly managed hospital effluents contribute significantly to the bacteriological degradation of urban rivers in developing settings, while highlighting broader human faecal contamination across the urban river network.
Access to safe water remains compromised when urban water bodies are heavily polluted with human faecal pathogens. Untreated hospital and urban wastewater discharges introduce high concentrations of infectious bacteria into rivers used by local populations. Understanding the scale and precise sources of this contamination is critical for municipalities aiming to prioritise sanitation infrastructure, protect community health, and improve urban water quality.
The assessment methodology, combining membrane filtration culturing and human-specific molecular testing, provides an applied monitoring framework for environmental agencies, municipalities, and sanitation utilities tracking faecal contamination sources. While the analytical approach is established and tested in field settings, the abstract does not describe a direct commercial product, proprietary diagnostic tool, or commercialisation pathway. Practical implementation relies on adoption by public health bodies and municipal water managers rather than immediate market deployment.
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Although the United Nations General Assembly recognized in 2010 the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right that is essential to the full enjoyment of life and all other human rights, the contamination of water supplies with faecal pathogens is still a major and unsolved problem in many parts of the world. In this study, faecal indicator bacteria (FIB), including Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Enterococcus (ENT), were quantified over the period of June/July 2014 and June/July 2015 to assess the quality of hospital effluents (n = 3: H1, H2 and H3) and of rivers receiving wastewaters from the city of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. The water and sediment samples from the river-receiving systems were collected in, upstream and downstream of the hospital outlet pipe (HOP) discharge. The analysis of E. coli and ENT in water and sediment suspension was performed using the cultural membrane filter method. The FIB characterization was performed for general E. coli, Enterococcus faecalis(E. faecalis) and human-specific Bacteroides by PCR using specific primers. The results revealed very high FIB concentration in the hospital effluent waters, with E. coli reaching the values of 4.2 × 10(5), 16.1 × 10(5) and 5.9 × 10(5) CFU 100 mL(-1), for the hospital effluents from H1, H2, and H3, respectively; and Enterococcus reaching the values of 2.3 × 10(4), 10.9 × 10(4) and 4.1 × 10(4) CFU 100 mL(-1), respectively. Interestingly, the FIB levels in the water and sediment samples from river-receiving systems are spatially and temporally highly variable and present in some samples with higher values than the hospital effluents. The PCR assays for human-specific Bacteroides HF183/HF134 further indicate that more than 98% of bacteria were from human origin. The results of this research therefore confirm the hypothesis of our previous studies, indicating that in developing countries (e.g., Democratic Republic of Congo and South India), the hospital effluent waters can be a significant source of the deterioration of the bacteriological quality for urban rivers. The approach used in this investigation can be further used to decipher the pollution of water resources by human faecal contamination. The results of this research will help to better understand the microbiological pollution problems in river-receiving systems and will guide municipality decisions on improving the urban water quality.
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DOI: 10.1080/10934529.2016.1198619
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