Groundwater quality in awe and environs, middle benue trough, nigeria

Abstract

Groundwater quality is an important thing to be determined; because it is commonly used as a source of clean water for domestic, agricultural and industry purposes. Fifty three groundwater samples (seventeen from wells, five from springs and thirty one from boreholes) were sampled for this research work. Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrophotometer (ICP-MS) was used to analyze for the major cations while titration was used for SO₄ and HCO₃. Cl was analyzed using the Ion Chromatographic Method (IC). From the results obtained, Total dissolved solids (TDS), Electrical conductivity (EC), and Strontium (Sr) classified the groundwater in the study area into three as fresh, brackish and saline water. The concentrations of major ions in all the fresh water and some of the brackish water in the study area met the World Health Organization (WHO) Standard for drinking water while the concentrations of the major ions in the saline water are above the WHO permissible values for drinking water. This indicates that the saline water from the study area are not good for domestic, agriculture and industrial uses. Four types of water are obtained from the groundwater based on Total Hardness (TH) as: 75 mg/l as soft; 75–150 mg/l as moderately hard; 150–300 mg/l as hard; and >300 mg/l as very hard. Both extreme degrees of very soft (<75 mg/l) and very hard (>300 mg/l) are considered as undesirable features in water. About 90% of the groundwater in the study area are suitable for domestic, livestock and irrigation purposes but only about 51% of the groundwater samples can be used by industries without being treated.