IJBST 2018 Volume 11 Issue 2
International Journal of BioSciences and Technology (IJBST) ISSN: 0974-3987
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Impact of Proliferation of Borehole Development Projects on Groundwater Quality in Abia State, Nigeria. Enyinna Gregory. C , Nkemdirim Victor. U. IJBST (2018), 11(2):20-29
Title:
Impact of Proliferation of Borehole Development Projects on Groundwater Quality in Abia State, Nigeria
Authors & Affiliation:
Enyinna Gregory. C1 , Nkemdirim Vitctor. U2
1 Department of Project Management Federal University of Technology Owerri, Imo state Nigeria
2 Department of Geography and planning, Abia State University Uturu, Nigeria
pycongrego@yahoo.com, gregory.enyinna@futo.edu.ng, princevic09@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT:
Proliferation of borehole development projects has impacted negatively on groundwater quality in Abia state due to its pressure on the aquifer, that result from continuous abstraction of ground water from the numerous locations of boreholes leading to salt water intrusion into groundwater and wrong site locations of water wells within areas of high pollution risk zones leading to infiltration of contaminants into groundwater wells through solute transport. These numerous borehole development projects was necessitated because of the failure of public water supply system that should have provided portable water to the inhabitants of the state who resorted to providing water for themselves through developments of these borehole projects within several individual households who drill water from very shallow aquifer systems that make the drilling projects cheaper financially. This research made use of Eno-scientific designed and manufactured water level meter (well sounder 2010 pro) to measure the depth of water table and thereafter, used Membrane filtration technique for laboratory analysis of microbial constituents of groundwater. Nitrate was determined by cadmium reduction method using HI83200 multi- parameter bench photometer at wavelength of 525nm while Ammonium was determined by Nessler method where HI83200 multi-parameter bench photometer was used at 420nm wavelength to analyze the twelve water samples collected within this research area. Arc GIS 10.2 was used for producing cartographical representations of spatially distributed geological formations, while Excel spread sheet was used in plotting the graphs. The secondary data for percentage distribution of households by major water sources show that boreholes had over 50% for the years 2007, 2008 and 2010 which was quite higher than other sources. The laboratory analysis of microbial constituents of groundwater shows that water was contaminated and was found with high values than the acceptable world health organization standard. Nitrate and Ammonia contaminations where also found in groundwater when results from laboratory analysis where compared with world health organization standard. These results necessitated this research to recommend rehabilitation of public water supply systems as well as well head protection zone development and regular treatment of contaminated wells and provision of large water storage facilities for rainwater harvesting so as to reduce the rate of proliferation of water drilling projects and reduce the rate of contamination of groundwater for the provision of best quality water supply in the state.
Keywords: Contamination, Proliferation, Drilling projects, Water quality, Aquifer, Borehole