ASSESSMENT OF LEVEL OF COMPLIANCE OF PURE WATER PRODUCERS’ OPERATIONS IN AKURE

Abstract

The level of compliance of water producers to the set regulations and standard was investigated. The study was focused on 65 selected producing factories within Akure South Local Government Area of Ondo State. The research was designed to gather information from two major sources; Primary source, which entailed responses from water producers and Secondary source, which included data obtained from standard regulatory body, NAFDAC. Twenty seven study characteristics were evaluated. They are: Sex of respondents, Age of respondents, Marital status of respondent, Education level of respondents, Registration of business, Length of registration of business, Renewal of registration, Economic benefit of registration, Necessity of registration body, Strictness of registration, Year of existence of water factory, Type of business, Nature of personnel, Employee qualification, Cost implication of registration, Availability of quality control unit, Product type, Product expiration (sachet), Product expiration (bottle), Chemical and microbiological analysis, Sample quantity, Nature of personnel, Bacteria detected, Action taken at detection of bacteria, Frequency of analysis, Environmental status, Free chlorine residue and Turbidity. It was observed that the level of compliance of the water producers within the study area was 100% in parameters such as sex of respondents, marital status, education level and environmental status of factory location. While less than 96% compliance was noticed in a crucial parameter such as detection of bacteria, 80.5% of the respondence indicated no detection of bacteria while 14.6% indicated presence of bacteria in their water products at a time. Therefore, action taken upon the detection of bacteria was investigated to ascertain that compliance with treatment methods as stipulated in the regulatory standards was adopted for treatment. It was observed that the affected factories complied fully with the set regulations for water treatment. 12.2% of the respondents