Analysis of spring water quality in Ebonyi South Zone and its health impact

Abstract

Studies were carried out between June through December, 2007 to evaluate the quality of rural water supply for drinking in Ebonyi South Zone of Ebonyi State, Nigeria. The rural communities of Ekoli Edda and Ozizza in Afikpo South L.G.A and parts of Okposi in Ohaozara L.G.A depend solely on spring water for their domestic needs. Samples from seven spring water sources in these areas were analyzed for some physico-chemical and microbial parameters by standard methods. Concentrations of some heavy metals; Cr, Cd, Co, Cu, Fe, Mn, Pb, Ni and Zn were determined using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. The results of the chemical analysis compared favourably with the WHO standard for drinking water, except for the relatively high concentration of iron in samples SE 5 (0.79 mg/L) and SE 6 (0.58 mg/L), and the exceedingly high phosphate concentrations, ranging from 0.25 -1.6mg/L in all the samples as against the WHO permissible limit of 0.1mg/L. The bacteriological analyses however revealed about 40% total coliform bacteria contamination, varying between 0 -4 MPN/100 ml of water in five out of the seven samples tested. The mean total hardness ranged from 8 -26 mgCaCO 3 /L indicating that the water is soft. The pH ranged from 4.2 -5.6 and 4.5 -6.0 at the rainy and dry seasons respectively, with an average pH of 5.1 + 0.48 during the rainy seasons and 5.6 + 0.58 at the dry seasons. This study provides baseline information on the spring water situation in Ebonyi South and suggested an alternative method of harnessing the natural water.

Quality Assessment of Some Springs in the Awing Community, Northwest Cameroon, and Their Health Implications

“…Improving access to safe drinking water can result in tangible benefits to health. The quality of drinking water has a powerful impact on public health and therefore, the effective monitoring and comprehensive assessment of public or community drinking water systems are crucial to protect the wellbeing of the public [1][2][3][4][5].…”

Heavy metal and Bacteriological analysis in spring water of North Sikkim with reference to seasonal variation

“…Higher concentration of iron in water sample may be due to the nature of the metal that is strongly absorbed to soil and more easily dissolved in minutely negligible amounts [24]. Similarly, several authors also observed nearly same concentration of heavy metals in their studies [25,26]. The bacteriological analysis of water plays a vital role as it helps to determine potability of water for drinking and other domestic purposes.…”

Re-examination of Hydrochemistry and Groundwater Potentials of Cross River and Imo-Kwa-Ibo Intersecting Tropical Basins of SouthSouth Nigeria

“…Nickel (Ni) ranged from -0.032 to 0.011 mg/l with an average value of -0.019 mg/l in Abakaliki [160] . Like F, Ni was not widely reported.…”

“…The threshold for the effects of Cu in drinking water on the gastrointestinal tract occurs, but then there is still some hesitation concerning the long-term effects of Cu on sensitive populations, such as carriers of the gene for Wilson Disease and other metabolic disorders of copper homeostasis [159] . Iron (Fe) ranged from 0-28 mg/l with an average value of 3.98 mg/l [147,157,158,160,161] . Iron is available in natural freshwaters at levels ranging from 0.5 to 50mg/ l [159] .…”