Groundwater quality assessment of aba urban area

Abstract

This work presents groundwater quality assessment of Aba Urban area and its sources of Contaminants within Aba Urban Area. Aba area was divided into nine parts using a 3x3 grid. Water samples were taken from each of these 9 parts of Aba. Five water samples were taken from household boreholes while four samples were taken from boreholes drilled and cased at the remaining four parts in the course of carrying out this research. Site and laboratory tests were conducted to determine the values water parameters in the samples. The parameters analysed in the laboratory include the Phosphate, ammonium, Lead, cadmium, Manganese, Copper, Mercury, Chromium, and magnesium, Electric conductivity (EC), Dissolved oxygen (DO), Total dissolved solid (TDS), Acidity, Turbidity, Alkalinity, oxidation- reduction potential (ORP), Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and E-Coli. It was discovered that more than 75% of the water samples are contaminated by EColi. Umuagu sample has Manganese value of 0.775mg/l. This more than the limiting value of 0.4mg/l. The values 252, 524 and 472 mg/l of Magnesium in samples from Estate, Abia Polytechnic and Osisio Ngwa respectively are more than the limiting value of 150mg/l. The DO (mg/l) values of 6,4 and 9 from Ariaria Junction and Abia Polytechnic are outside the range limiting of 6.5mg/l – 8.0 mg/l. The values of TDS, ORP and BOD recorded in all the samples are below the limiting values of 600 mg/l, 357 mV and 1mg/l respectively.