ABSTRACT
The study was conducted on communities along Lamurde
floodplain between Latitude 8˚52’0” and 8˚56’6” and Longitude11˚19’0”
and 11˚22’8”. The study areaoverlain the shallow
well fields where public water supply system and main private water vending were
extracted to service the entire Jalingo city. Sample points were selected among
the few available functional water points during the month of April when dry
season was at its peak. Seventeen water points were randomly sampled, assessed
and quantified for sanitary risk using standardized checklists.
Biophysicochemical constituents of the water samples were also conducted using
international standard methods of water samplings and analytical application
principles. The sanitary inspection identified different degree of sanitary
risk factor at the sample points, with a common practice at the dug wellsource
where fetching tools were left in pools of stagnant water. All the sample
points quantified with high sanitary risk were noted with faecal coliforms.
There were significant differences between faecal coliform counts (F2,14=
17.31; p = 1.64 x 10 -4) in the dry season and (F2,14=
5.39; p = 8.54 x 10 -4) in the wet season at 95% confidence level
along borehole, tube well and dug well sources. Nitrate contaminations were
localized to sources closed to either pit latrines or solid waste dumpsites. No
effect between nitrate concentrations (F2,14=1.75; p =0.21) in the
dry season and (F2,14 =1.65; p =0.23) in the wet season 95%
confidence level along the boreholes, tube wells and dug wells. The summary of
the analysis indicated
that fecal and chloride contaminations were widespread over borehole, tube well
and dug well water sources while all other chemical contaminations were
localized.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
The soil formation has the capacity
of self-cleaning and equilibrium maintenance of groundwater quality to preserve
its quality so that every generation finds it the same as the one before it
(Bhatia, 2002). However, with man’s expanded population and his quest to
develop industrial and agricultural sectors to provide food and other basic
amenities to the increasing population, there has been enormous amount of
wastes generated and released with varying compositions onto the environment on
a continuous basis. The contaminants arising from these wastes may be carried
from the sources by infiltrating water through long distances to the groundwater
table before natural processes such as adsorption, biodegradation, radioactive
decay, ion exchange and dispersion could remove them. Studies have shown that
Nigeria urban groundwater quality is influenced by geology and geochemistry of
the environment, rate of urbanization, industrialization, landfill/dumpsite
leachates and effect of seasons (Ocheriet al., 2014).
In urban settings, the risk of
groundwater contamination are likely to be most significant, due to the higher
density of contaminant sources, issues of contaminant legacy and greater
concentrations of anthropogenic activity (Sorensen and Pedly, 2015).
Additionally, as the impervious and un-vegetated ground of urban developmental
areas have little or no retention during rains, human and animal wastes are
flushed into the river systems polluting urban water supplies, rivers and
coastal waters (Mafutaet al., 2011). Principal water contaminants arising from
poor community sanitation practices include but not limited to faecal matters,
nitrate and chloride. Faecal contamination may occur because there are no
community facilities for waste disposal, because collection and treatment
facilities are inadequate or improperly operated, or because on-site sanitation
facilities (such as latrines) drain directly into aquifers (Bartram and
Ballance, 1996). Ammonia in the environment mainly results from feedlot and the use of manures in
agriculture, or from on-site sanitation or leaking sewer. Ammonia in water
could also be an indicator of sewage pollution (WHO, 2006). Chloride is
abundant in human faeces; its presence in water is an indication of faecal
contamination.
Of primary concern is the quality
of groundwater exploited for drinking as well as other domestic purposes. Many
human bacteria and virus are transmitted through faecal contaminated
groundwater supply, making them waterborne. High prevalence of diarrhoea among
children and infant can be traced to use of unsafe water and unhygienic
practice (Bradford et al., 2013). Heavy metals enter groundwater through
natural leaching from the rock or runoff from industrial wastes and pollution
fallout of pervious surface of roads, motors parks and commercial areas, which
percolate down, into groundwater tables. They persist in the environments and
tend to accumulate in soils, sediments and biota. Heavy metals can cause
neurological disorder and any contact with water with highly polluted heavy
metals can result in skin irritation (Davis and Susan, 2004).
This concern has attracted overwhelming
studies on the quality status of groundwater abstracted from shallow wells and
deep wells for human consumption in urban areas of the country (Ocheri et al.,
2014). Jalingo, which is one of the fast growing cities in Nigeria, is not
exceptional. The urban abstraction wells are mainly within the informal
congested city limit with wells and boreholes constructed close to pit
latrines. The solid wastes management and pollution control within the city is
characterized by insufficient methods of collection, transfer and storage,
insufficient coverage of the collection system and uncontrolled disposal of the
waste (Yavini and Musa, 2013).
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Item Type: Project Material | Size: 103 pages | Chapters: 1-5
Format: MS Word | Delivery: Within 30Mins.
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