Nigeria did not meet the millennium development goal (MDG) target of 75% coverage of safe drinking water in 2015. This
research is aimed at evaluating the suitability of ceramic water filter made from natural clay and sugarcane bagasse to
remove turbidity and pathogens from surface water for household drinking purpose. Preliminary filters were constructed from
different proportions of clayto sugarcane bagasse and 90% clay –10% sugarcane bagasse gave a good flowrate of 2.5 L/hr.
Four filters were constructed and were labeled Filters A, B, C and D based on different methods of silver nitrate application.
Raw water was collected at Riminguza Dam and100 filtration runs were conducted in all the four filters. pH, turbidity and
total coliform (TC) count were tested before and after the 1st, 5th, 10th, 20th, 50th and 100thfiltration runs. The raw water result
on pH, turbidity and TC countwas6.7, 46.3 NTU and 70 count/100 ml respectively. The result of 100 filtration runs on the four
filters on pH ranged from 7.07 to 7.17, turbidity ranged from 2.69 to 3.76 NTU and the TC count ranged from 2 to 22
count/100ml.Filter C and D were found to be more effective in terms of coliform removal. The filtered water was found to
conform to the WHO and Nigerian standards for safe drinking water quality.
Key words: Turbidity, pathogens, raw water, standards
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