No abstract

Water is an essential element for the sustainability of human life on earth. Thus, portable drinking water is scarce and not readily available to all. Rural communities consume contaminated water and take ill periodically, which later results in epidemics. Contamination of drinking water may be caused by natural sources or industrial effluents due to domestic, agricultural and industrial activities. One of such contaminants is fluoride which is a salt of the element fluorine. Several treatment technologies for removing fluoride from groundwater have been investigated. This study focused on providing potable drinking water with fluoride level within the limit specified by the World Health Organization (WHO) to the people of Gashaka village. To achieve this, fluoride concentration and some physical properties in the water sample were determined. Subsequently, treatment of the sample by herbal means using activated carbon prepared from the stem of Tridax procumbens was carried out to prevent or minimise the effects of fluoride on human health such as skeletal fluorosis, dental fluorosis, fractures in bones, immune deficiency, cancer and other diseases caused by high concentration of fluoride in water since it possesses properties capable of greatly reducing fluoride concentration. The experimental result shows that fluoride concentration in the sample obtained was 2.3 mg/l which exceeds the 0.7 mg/l -1.2 mg/l range recommended by WHO. The effective contact time for fluoride removal was found to be 6 hours while the maximum dose of activated carbon for the effective removal of fluoride concentration in 100 mg of water was found to be 1.05 g which removed 85.6%. However, subsequent addition of the activated carbon tends to increase fluoride concentration in the sample.