Geophysicochemical Characterization of the Aquifer Systems in Okigwe Local Government Area, South-East, Nigeria

C.Y. Ahamefule¹ , M.C. Ohakwere-Eze² , M.U. Igboekwe³

Section:Research Paper, Product Type: Journal-Paper
Vol.8 , Issue.5 , pp.17-21, Oct-2020

Online published on Oct 31, 2020

Copyright © C.Y. Ahamefule, M.C. Ohakwere-Eze, M.U. Igboekwe . This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
 

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Abstract :
Water is an important resource of the natural environment. It is one of the common substances known and provided for man’s usage. In the study area, majority of people do not have access to portable water. The objective of this study is to carry out water sample test of recently developed boreholes so as to assess the groundwater quality in the study area. Groundwater samples from twenty boreholes were collected and analyzed. The groundwater of the study area in terms of mgl-1 showed low concentration of major elements (Ca2+ > Mg2+ > K+ > Pb2+ > Fe2+ > Cu2+ and Cl- > > > > ). They were low hardness (Ca2+ and Mg2+ varies from 0.02 to 5.68mgl 1 and 0.03 to 8.222mgl-1 respectively), low salt (from 0.001 to 0.008mgl-1 of Na2+), low chlorine (from 2.330 to 140.9mgl-1 of Cl-) and low sulphate concentration (1.00 to 8.00 mgl-1 of ). The average values of Potassium, Copper and Iron contents in the groundwater samples are 0.95mgl-1, 0.01mgl 1 and 0.11mgl¬-1 respectively. The values of the pH for the study area is from 4.1 to 8.9 with a mean value of 5.44. Their temperature varied from 27.2°C to 30.9°C. The conductivity values within the study area lies between 12 to 725?s/cm with an average value of 141.15?s/cm. The turbidity values within the study area varied from 0.00 to 0.001 NTU. The Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) contents vary from 6 to 310MgL-1. The Total Saturated Solids (TSS) content of the water samples varied from 2 to 8mgl-1. The results reveals that the overall physicochemical values are within the acceptable limits of natural and international standards for drinking, domestic and agricultural purposes when correlated with the World Health Organization (WHO) standard guidelines for water quality.

Key-Words / Index Term :
Water quality, groundwater, WHO, physicochemical analysis

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