Sachet water quality and Vendors’ practices in Damongo, northern Ghana during the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 using multivariate statistics, water quality and pollution indices, and panel assessment

The emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 has affected several production services including the water production and delivery processes. This study considered sachet water quality during the advent of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic using multivariate statistics and Water Quality Index, Water Pollution Index and, hygienic and sanitation practices of sixty-two (62) sachet water vendors using a panel assessment approach. The findings showed that vendors did not adhere to proper hygienic practices as ninety-four (94%) of them did not have health clearance, ninety (90%) did not frequently wash their receptacles for selling daily, and most of them stored and sold in unhygienic environments. Majority of the producers violated Food and Drugs Authority Regulations. The Empirical Orthogonal Function analysis showed that total iron, Total Heterotrophic Bacteria, Salmonella, Cl(−), E. coli, and fecal and total coliforms were the controlling elements in the water. All the brands were below threshold limits based on the physical water assessment. However, enteric bacteria were observed in all the brands. Water Quality and Water Pollution Indices (WQI and WPI) described all the sachet water brands (vendors and production sites) as excellent for drinking. The WQI computations for samples from the production and vending sites respectively ranged from 0.12 to 0.36 and 0.27–0.42 whereas WPI presented 0.22–0.31 and 0.23–0.32. Comparatively, samples from vendors had elevated elemental concentrations and loads. This suggests that besides sachet water contamination during production and transportation, vendors significantly impacted the quality of sachet water. Sensitization on proper hygienic practices for sachet water production and vending and routine assessment of the quality of sachet water produced or sold is recommended.