Assessment of the Quality of Water used for Domestic and Sanitary Purposes in Parts of Port Harcourt Metropolis, Rivers State Nigeria

Abstract

This study was carried out to assess the impact or effect of industrial activities and refuse dump site on the quality of water used for domestic and sanitary purposes in parts of Port Harcourt metropolis, Rivers State Nigeria. The quality assessment was focused on physiochemical parameters. A total of twenty water samples were collected from twenty locations (randomly selected from industrial and refuse dump site areas) within the study area. Ten major physiochemical parameters which include: potency of hydrogen (PH), salinity, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids (TDS), turbidity (NTU), calcium (Ca2+), magnesium (Mg2+), chloride (Cl), sulphate (SO4 2-) and nitrate (NO3 - ) were analyzed. The results obtained were compared with the standards of World Health Organization (WHO), and show that the water samples have PH values between 3.78 and 7.23 which is not within the permissible limit of WHO and thus, indicating that they are acidic and not fit for domestic purposes. Salinity values range between 0.018 and 0.202mg/L indicating that the water is fresh and good for sanitary purpose, electrical conductivity values range between 38.0 and 378.7µΩ/cm, total dissolved solid and turbidity values range from 32.7 to 263.0mg/L and 0.2 to 0.9NTU respectively which is within the limit prescribed by WHO. The concentration of nitrate and sulphate range between 0.47 and 3.00mg/L and <1.0 and 17.2mg/L respectively after analysis and are within the limit prescribed by WHO. The knowledge from this study can be applied in environmental and water management studies and hydrological activities