Safe drinking water access for rural populations in developing
countries remains a challenge for a sustainable development, particularly in
rural and periurban areas of Burkina Faso. The study aims to investigate the
purifying capacity of Moringa oleifera defatted cake as compared to Moringa
oleifera seed in the treatment of surface and well waters used for
populations alimentation. A total of 90 water samples were collected in sterile
glass bottles from 3 dams’ water reservoirs, a river, and a large diameter
well, respectively. The water samples were treated in triplicate with Moringa
oleifera seed and defatted cake coagulants. At different settling time and
coagulant concentration, turbidity and pH were measured to determine the
optimal conditions and factors influencing treatment with regard to sampling
source. Nine physicochemical parameters (turbidity, pH, nitrates, nitrites,
calcium, magnesium, total hardness, organic matter and sulfates), three
bacterial fecal pollution indicators (Escherichia coli, fecal Coliforms
and fecal Streptococcus) and parasite cysts were monitored based on laboratory
standard methods. Data were analyzed using the Student’s t test and XLSTAT
7.5.2 statistical software. From the results obtained, for the same
concentration of coagulant, settling time providing the lowest turbidity was significantly shorter (p < 0.0001) with Moringa oleifera cake than
seed. Optimum settling time with Moringa oleifera cake was between 15 - 60 min versus 60 - 120 min,
with Moringa oleifera seed. Both treatments significantly reduced
minerals concentration in water excepted sulfates for which the concentration
reversely increased. However, only Moringa oleifera cake treatment
reduced organic matter content in all the water samples, while it increased
with Moringa oleifera seed one (p < 0.0001). The reduction of
microbial pollution indicators was 92% - 100% with M. oleifera cake treatment and
84% - 100% with M. oleifera seed one. Overall, for all water
samples, Moringa oleifera cake treatment appeared more efficient in
improving drinking water quality than the M. oleifera seed treatment.