A comprehensive study on the physicochemical characteristics of two water sources from the Adamawa North senatorial zone, Nigeria

Abstract

INTRODUCTION The people of the Adamawa North senatorial zone lack potable pipe-borne water supply and depend entirely on water of questionable quality for domestic purposes from sources such as boreholes, wells, streams, and rivers. In order to ascertain the health risk level that people in this zone are exposed to, this study investigates the physicochemical parameters of two water sources (river and well) in 4 out of the 5 Local Government Areas (LGAs) that constitute the study area. METHODS To achieve this, water samples from 4 rivers (one from each LGA), and 32 hand-dug wells (8 from each LGA) were analyzed for the rainy and dry seasons between June 2019 and April 2020. A total of 160 (32 from river sources, and 128 from hand-dug well sources) water samples were analyzed for 13 physicochemical parameters to determine their equivalence with the benchmark level advocated by World Health Organization (WHO). RESULTS The results showed that temperature, DO (mg/L), BOD (mg/L), SO4 (mg/L), and NO3 (mg/L) for well and river water sources in both seasons were within the benchmark values recommended by WHO. In contrast, the values of the COD (mg/L), TSS (mg/L), and Fe (mg/L) of both water sources and in both seasons were above the recommended guideline, except for 12.5% of the well-water samples in the dry season whose TSS values were within the recommended limits. Iron (Fe) was not detected in well-water samples during the dry season. Other parameters (pH, EC, TDS, and TH) had values either within or above WHO standards in different proportions for dry and rainy seasons. Cadmium was not detected in all the water sources for both seasons. CONCLUSIONS The results showed that water sources in the study area are of low quality, and may require further processing before use.