Abstract
A baseline study involving analyses of subsurface water samples from the Mingoa river basin (longitude: 11°30′E; latitude: 3°52′N) in migmatitic complex in Yaounde Cameroon (central Africa) was carried out to assess their suitability for drinking, domestic and agricultural purposes. Study results show that pH is ranged between 5.1≤ pH ≤ 5.8 and then, induces acidic waters. Groundwater samples are generally characterized by low conductivity values, of which 100% are within the range (55 ≤ EC ≤ 1500 μS/cm). The mean values of the major cations (Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, K+) and anions (SO42– , Cl–, HCO3– ) are all within the World Health Organization (WHO) standards. Two of the springs sampled have nitrate (NO3– ) contamination. Even though contamination and acidic waters exist in some of the springs, the majority of the springs are excellent for agricultural and domestic purposes. Assessment of the groundwater for agricultural irrigation revealed two main categories. These are low salinity-low sodicity (C1-S1) and medium salinity-low sodicity (C2-S1), using the US Salinity Laboratory (USSL) classification scheme. As much as all of the samples plotted in the “excellent to good” and “good to permissible” categories on the Wilcox diagram. The groundwater in the study area may therefore be regarded as good for irrigation activities. The major identifiable geochemical processes responsible for the evolution of the various ions are mineral weathering, chemical reactions and anthropogenic activities.
Highlights
Groundwater is a valuable natural resource; it occurs almost in all geological formations beneath the earth surface not in a single widespread aquifer but in thousands of local aquifer systems with similar characteristics [1]
All the groundwater samples are out of the permissible limit prescribed by World Health Organization (WHO)
The maximum limit of electrical conductivity (EC) in drinking water is prescribed as 833 μs/cm according to WHO standard
Summary
Groundwater is a valuable natural resource; it occurs almost in all geological formations beneath the earth surface not in a single widespread aquifer but in thousands of local aquifer systems with similar characteristics [1]. The chemical quality of groundwater depends on the characteristics of the soil and rock media through which it passes to the groundwater zone of saturation [4,5,6,7]. More than 7.5% of the Yaounde population practices the urban and peri-urban agriculture in the swampy area to produce leaf vegetables for commercialization and consumption [15]. In this area, both for drinking as well as irrigation purposes substantial amount of groundwater is being used.
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