Abstract
Clean, safe and adequate freshwater is vital to the survival of all living organisms and smooth functioning of ecosystems, communities and economies. Surface water is becoming highly susceptible to pollution, and the trend of production of groundwater for various purposes has been increased from time to time. Groundwater will also be vulnerable to contamination by natural processes and anthropogenic disturbances and, thus, deserves appropriate attention and action. In the present study, spring water samples were collected from the Ankober district in low-, middle- and high-altitude areas in dry, semi-dry and wet seasons in 2015. Bacteriological (total coliform [TC] and fecal coliform [FC]) and physicochemical parameters such as temperature, pH, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids, dissolved oxygen, salinity, total alkalinity (TA), total hardness (TH), Na+, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+, Fe2+, Mn2+, Cl−, SO42−, CO32−, HCO3−, NO3− and F− were analyzed to assess its suitability for domestic purposes. The results of the study showed that most of the parameters were found to be within the safe limit values of the WHO and Ethiopian standards for drinking water except some values at the lowest attitude area: TC/FC (147/1 per 100 ml) and F− (1.68 mg/L) in the dry season, Mg2+ (52.1 mg/L) in the semi-dry season and K+ (1.59–51.15 mg/L) in all three seasons. Furthermore, the values of Fe2+ (0.448–1.005 mg/L) were above the limit in most of the samples. Generally, spring water in the assessed areas is safe for domestic applications with slight variability in the low-altitude area. For sustainable use, vulnerability mapping and awareness creation are strongly recommended.
Highlights
Surface water is becoming highly scarce and susceptible to pollution due to rapid urbanization, industrialization and intensification of agriculture
Bacteriological analysis In developing countries, majority of the population is not adequately supplied with drinking water from protected and managed water supply network and are forced to use unprotected water from wells, springs and streams that may be unsafe for domestic application as a result of contamina tion through natural and anthropogenic interferences (Amanial, 2015)
The results indicated that the spring water samples have no fecal and TCs with the exception of one lowland site (Dinki) in the dry season (Table 2)
Summary
Surface water is becoming highly scarce and susceptible to pollution due to rapid urbanization, industrialization and intensification of agriculture. Groundwater differs from surface water through its physical and chemical environment. It is stored in and transmitted through under ground reservoir rocks/soils called aquifers (Lerner & Harris, 2009). Groundwater is the largest reserve of drinking water due to its long retention time and natural filtering effect of earth materials (Sebiawu et al, 2014). Nowadays, it has become the major source of water supply in most sectors of many countries. The groundwater will be vulnerable to contamination due to the release of contaminants through several activities caused by natural processes (geological formation, dissolution and precipitation of minerals, groundwater velocity, infiltration rate, quality of recharge waters and interaction with other types of water aquifers) and the anthropogenic disturbances (Oluyemi, 2013; Shigut et al, 2017)
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