Water quality analysis of the commercial boreholes in Mubi Metropolis, Adamawa State, Nigeria: geographic information system approach.

Abstract

It is observed that most of the commercial boreholes in Mubi Metropolis are located along River Yedzeram which is the main river that runs across the town. Unfortunately, due to the geographical location of the town in savanna region with minimal water supply, water related small scale industries such as sachet water, block making, irrigation agriculture, cloth dying, car wash and other pollution activities such as mechanical workshops and public toilets are also located along the same River Yedzeram. Moreover, the inhabitants of the town either dump their refuse in the River or spread it on their farmlands as there is no provision of refuse dump site by the government. Therefore, five parameters (Nitrate, Magnesium, Copper, Calcium and Iron) were used to test the water quality of water samples that were collected from twenty two commercial boreholes along the river, using the standard examination of water and waste water of the World Health Organization to determine the water quality of the boreholes. The study revealed that only eight out of the twenty two boreholes are of good quality, while the others are either of bad quality or not portable. ArcGIS 9.2 and ILWIS 3.3 software were used to analyze the laboratory results through the use of SQL queries. It was recommended that the government should provide portable water, establish water quality control board and make use of GIS for creation of database and analysis.

Keywords: GIS, Water Quality, Underground Water and Water Pollution