Evaluation of Physicochemical and Geoelectrical Parameters of Soil and Water around Electronic Dumpsites in Selected Locations of Aba, Nigeria

Abstract

Electronic waste can be harmful to human health as it contains some heavy metals which alter the wellbeing of people. Aba being a commercial city in Southeastern Nigeria is lying on permeable soil. The indiscriminate disposal of these items makes it expedient for the investigation to be carried out by studying the characteristics of the soil and groundwater quality in order to ascertain the concentration of some of these heavy metals which pollute the water. Resistivities of the soil were determined by employing the vertical electrical sounding method and using some appropriate computer modeling software such as ip2win, surfer12, grapher 8, etc. to interpret the geoelectric sections. Water samples were collected from twenty different locations (BH1 to BH20 and leachate site), then, analyzed using atomic absorption spectrophotometer which revealed the concentration levels of some elements including heavy metals and some compounds such as Al (4.5–40.26 mg/L), As (0.0–3.78 mg/L), Cd (0.0–3.78 mg/L), Cr (0.0–0.543 mg/L), Cu (0.0–21.54 mg/L), Fe (0.15–9.27 mg/L), Pb (0.0–5.604 mg/L), Hg (0.0–2.688 mg/L), Ni (0.0–0.504 mg/L), Ag (0.04–1.2 mg/L), Zn (0.0004–5.2 mg/L), CN (0.84–2.63 mg/L), NH3 (0.004–2.74 mg/L), PO4 (0.3–8.4 mg/L), SO4 (0.0–35 mg/L), etc. The soil resistivities range from 500 Ωm to 1000 Ωm and the depth to water is between 20 m to 40 m. The results revealed that water level is very close to the ground surface and hence, the groundwater is prone to pollution. Also, the percentage concentration of some of the heavy metals is high, which points to a serious threat to life.