Abstract: It has been established that sewage harbours various pathogens and allergens that are harmful to human health. A total of 200 sewage samples were obtained from ten sites of the Federal Polytechnic, Idah and examined for bacterial contamination between the months of August and October 2010. Of this total, 180 (90.0%) were positive for bacilli (Rods) while 20 (10.0%) were positive cocci contamination. The bacilli species of bacteria isolaled include: Escherichia coli, Salmonella sp. and Shigella sp. while Staphylococcus aureus was the only cocci bacterium isolated. The mean total count recorded for the four species of bacteria ranged from 1.2x10⁴ to 9.8x10⁴ mL^-1 and this range falls within the high to extremely high total count of coliform bacteria. The distribution of mean total count of pathogenic bacteria in the ten sites surveyed was not significantly different (p>0.05). However, the prevalence (%) or occurrence of the four species of the pathogens in the ten sites differed significantly (p<0.05) with 100% cases of S. aureus recorded in FPI-Nnamdi Azikiwe, Amina, Bello and FPI-Omaidoko Hostel, respectively. The overall prevalence of Salmonella typhi (48.7%) active infection, revealed from clinical records, among students and staff of the polytechnic was not only relatively high but spanned through the three months of the study with prevalence of S. typhi ranging from 27.9-61.1% and closely corroborated with the occurrence of S. typhi, 55 (30.6%) in the sewage examined. The findings have no doubt provided baseline information about high prevalence of bacterial infections among students and staff of the polytechnic, especially with respect to rampant cases of typhoid fever caused by Salmonella typhi. With these data, the stakeholders could put in place the necessary measures against the infections by pathogenic bacteria. Contaminated water and food contribute to high morbidity and mortality rates from diarrhoea disease, typhoid fever and gastrointestinal illness and sometimes can lead to epidemics.