Assessment of water quality from selected borehole locations in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State, Southwest Nigeria.

Abstract

Borehole water is commonly believed to be pure and safe to drink. The present study assessed the quality of ten selected borehole locations within Ado -Ekiti. This was carried out by assessing the physicochemical parameters, microbial and heavy metal contamination using standard procedures. The physicochemical parameter results showed that Temperature range between 25.99 oC - 26.60 oC, Electrical conductivity range between 41.62 µs/cm - 202.54 µs/cm, pH range between 6.81-7.57, Total dissolved solids range between 28.15 mg/L - 116.22 mg/L, Total suspended solids range between 0.09 mgl -1.27 mgl, Turbidity range between 0.12 NTU-0.71 NTU, Total Hardness range between 29.64 mg/l -80.61 mg/l, Total Alkalinity range between 20.97 mg/l - 65.42 mg/l and all values were within World Health Organisation (WHO) permissible limits. The bacteria count of borehole water sample range from 10.66 ± 0.03 Cfu/ml to 12.56 ± 0.03 Cfu/ml. Highest fungi count of the borehole water sample was in the value range from 8.27 ± 0.00 Sfu/ml to 9.63 ± 0.02 Sfu/ml. The highest coliform detected in the borehole sample range from 5.33 ± 0.58 Cfu/ml to 8.67 ± 8.56 Cfu/ml. The bacteria, fungi and coliform count result observed in this study was higher than the WHO recommended limits. The metals occurred in the samples in this order Cr >Fe > Pb > As > Cd. The heavy metals were present in quantities higher than WHO recommended limit in some of the samples which is an indication of potential health hazards through the water consumption.