Abstract

PHYSICOCHEMICAL AND BACTERIAL CHARACTERISATION OF EFFLUENTS FROM A MOTHER-CHILD HOSPITAL IN MARRA-KECH, MOROCCO AND ITS IMPACT ON THE ENVIRONMENT

El Hassan Loumame*, Laila Midhat, Abdessamad Tounsi, Soumia Amir, Nabila Soraa and Naaila Ouazzani

ABSTRACT

This study aims to evaluate the main physicochemical and biological parameters of effluents from the mother-child hospital of Mohamed VI University Hospital, Marrakech, Morocco. The characterization results obtained demonstrate that the examined hospital effluents contain sig-nificantly a high amount of organic matter. Results of BOD5 (948.28 ± 164.14) mg/L, COD (1358.33 ± 398.67) mg/L and TSS (880.02 ± 72.71) mg/L show that the values are above the standards of direct discharge according to Moroccan standards, with a good bio-degradability COD/BOD5 = (1.48 ± 0.467). Heavy metal concentrations and nitrogen compound values are in accord with the limit values of the direct and indirect discharge of waste water in Moroccan standards. The microbiological characterization show that the number of fecal con-tamination indicators are significantly high. The total coliforms, fecal coliforms and fecal streptococci were (3.20 ± 0.867)x107 CFU/100 mL, (2.72 ± 0,88) x107 CFU/100 mL, and (0.42 ± 0.08) x107 CFU/100 mL, respectively. The main characteristics seems to be equivalent to a municipal waste water. However, the pathogenic bacteria present in this effluent are mainly Salmonella, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Clostridium and have been found to be more prevalent in the hospital effluent. In addition, the analysis of their antibiograms reveals that these pathogenic bacteria are highly resistant to most of the common antibiotics used in human medicine in general. This study shows the effective specificity of the hospitals waste water and the high risk of discharging such effluents, without disinfection, for the public health and for the environment.

Keywords: Hospital effluent; organic pollution, nutrients, heavy metals, antibi-otic-resistant bacteria; health and environmental impact.