ABSTRACT

Water plays a significant role in maintaining the human health and welfare. The observation of groundwater quality elements is essential for understanding the classification and distribution of water. Water quality and suitability for use are determined by its taste, odour, colour, and concentration of organic and inorganic matters.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the groundwater quality near a dump site in Evbotubu community using the water quality index and Geospatial analysis.

In this study, Water samples were collected randomly from ten (10) boreholes within the study area and analysed for about twenty-two (22) important physico-chemical parameters. These selected physico-chemical parameters include; pH, Nitrate, Electrical Conductivity (EC), turbidity, Dissolved Oxygen (DO), Total Dissolved solids (TDS), Sodium, Lead, Sulphate, Zinc, Copper, Chloride, Iron, Carbonate Hardness, Total Suspended solids (TSS), Nitrite, Cadmium, Nickel, Total Hydrocarbon content (THC), Phosphate, Alkalinity and Calcium for each of the collected samples.

The water quality index for each sample was calculated and each physico-chemical parameters were compared to the W.H.O standard limit. The results have shown that analyzed water is not affected by the dumpsite, and the water quality is excellent with a WQI average of 99%.

However, a geostatical analysis five (5) critical water quality parameters used which include: pH, Nitrate, TDS, Chloride and Copper. Analysis revealed that the water quality parameters showed relatively strong degree of spatial dependency which made it possible to generate the spatial distribution map for the selected water quality parameters.

Finally the map which was generated can be employed to predict pH, nitrate, total dissolved solids, chloride concentration in unsampled boreholes within the study area was generated.