| Popis: |
Water contamination is a major area of concern to the environmental scientist and calls for continuous assessment to reduce health hazard pose by this polluted water. Here in, the assessment of physicochemical and microbiological quality of water from two primary sources during the dry and wet season in Afikpo, Nigeria was performed using standard procedures. The results revealed that, the microbiological quality observed from the two water samples from different locations were higher during the wet season compared with the dry season. Water from Unwana River has higher microbial quality during the wet and dry season compared to the water samples collected from Iyioka stream. The physicochemical evaluation showed that, total suspended solid, turbidity, electrical conductivity and biochemical oxygen demand values were higher than the WHO recommended value. Other physicochemical parameters (pH, temperature, total dissolve solid, dissolve oxygen, and nitrate) were within the WHO and SON recommended limit. Only iron (Fe), and lead (Pb) were observed to be higher than the WHO maximum limit, other metallic ions such as Ca2+, Mg2+, and CaCO3were within the recommended limit. Overall, the high microbial quality and some physicochemical parameters above the recommended limits make the water from these sources unfit for drinking. Hence, environmental awareness should be urgently organize to educate the community on the health hazard of these water bodies in other to reduce water related diseases, which is endemic to the health of people in this part of Nigeria. |
