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Groundwater quality parameters-correlation and microbial analysis


H.I. Owamah

Abstract

This report gives the correlation and microbial analyses of groundwater, in a rural community, in the South-South of Nigeria for wet and dry season monitoring. Sampling of borehole (BH) and hand-dug well (HDW) water samples was done for eight (8) consecutive months, beginning from May 01 2016 to January 31, 2017; to cover for wet and dry seasons. In line with standard methods of APHA (2012), over thirty (30) water quality properties were measured and correlated. Results of the correlation analysis showed that the prominent mineral groups responsible for total dissolved solids (TDS) and electrical conductivity (EC) in the groundwater are Mg-Ca (0.98), Ca-Fe (-0.98), Na-K (0.97) and Na-Mg (0.96) groups and hence, control the chemical properties of the study area groundwater. The correlation analysis also showed that while Cl- and SO42- did not exhibit strong preferential affinity for any of the cations, NO3- was perfectly correlated with Mg (-0.91) and Cd (0.98), and very strongly with Ca (-0.85) and Ba (0.84). The microbial analysis result revealed that BHs were cleaner sources of potable water in the community, compared with hand-dug wells.

Keywords: Groundwater, monitoring, quality parameters, microbial and correlation


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eISSN: 2467-8821
print ISSN: 0331-8443