Elemental Composition of Sediments from Borehole Water in Abakaliki Metropolis, Ebonyi State, Nigeria

Abstract

Elemental composition of sediment samples (sample S1 and sample S2) from borehole water collected from Abakaliki Metropolis was evaluated using Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence (ED-XRF) model 710H, 7300Si (L), 4861BM/PC. The results indicated a total of 18 elements in S1 sediment and 14 elements in S2 sediment in different concentrations expressed in weight percentage (wt.%). Fe and Mn had the highest concentration of 62.4365 ± 0.1491 wt.% and 15.2202 ± 0.0789 wt.% respectively in S1 sediment, while the concentration of Ca (82.9295 ± 0.2057 wt. %) was highest in S2 sediment. The mean concentrations of all the heavy metals found in S1 were above the WHO maximum permissible limit except for Cu and Zn, while only Mn exceeded the WHO limit in S2 sediment. These results showed that Fe, Mn and Ca were the three most abundant elements in the sediments. The presence of these elements is likely to be cause of the observed problems in borehole water in the area such as high hardness, food and fabric colouring and food sour. Therefore water samples from boreholes in Abakaliki Metropolis require treatment to make them potable and fit for domestic purposes.