EFFECT OF SOLID WASTE ON GROUND WATER QUALITY

ABSTRACT

The study was conducted to evaluate the effect of solid waste on groundwater in Ekurede Itsekiri, Warri, Delta state, Nigeria. Borehole water samples were collected during the rainy season from ten (10) boreholes in the community and analyzed for twenty-nine water quality parameters. The physio-chemical parameters analyzed were, pH, Total dissolved solids, Electrical Conductivity, Salinity, Coliform, Turbidity, Total suspended solids, Chemical oxygen demand, Hydrogen Carbonate (HCO₃), Sodium(Na), Potassium(K), Calcium(Ca), Magnesium(Mg), Chloride(Cl), Phosphorus, Nitrogen Dioxide(NO₂), Nitrogen Ion(NO₃), Ammonium Nitrogen(NH₄N), Sulfur Dioxide(SO^2-₄₎, Lead(Pb), Iron (Fe), Manganese (Mn), Zinc (Zn), Copper (Cu), Cadmium (Cd), total hardness, Ammonium nitrogen. Microsoft excel (2013) was used to analyze the parameters (data). The Anion pollution index, heavy metal pollution index, and Water quality index were used to evaluate the overall quality of the groundwater. The physiochemical analysis of the groundwater revealed that all the parameters examined were in appreciable limit with the World Health Organization standards except from the following parameters, pH, Total dissolved solids (TDS), NH₄N and Iron which were not within the acceptable limits of the World Health Organization, and for the leachate all other parameters were in acceptable limits except, Cadmium (Cd), Coliform, Ph, Iron, and Lead. Implying that some high percentage of leachates containing Cadmium (Cd), Coliform, Ph, Iron, Cr and Lead and some high percent of pH, Total dissolved solids (TDS), NH₄N are polluting the boreholes around this area of study. The Heavy Metal Pollution Index (HPI) shows that the groundwater and the leachate are not heavily polluted with heavy metals as seen from Table 4.6 the mean HPI value for groundwater was 35.98 and the mean HPI value for leachate was 34.84. All the physio-chemical parameters analyzed were detected in the leachate while some parameters were not detected in the groundwater sample (Total suspended solids (TSS), Coliform and Turbidity). Results of the physiochemical analysis has shown that the groundwater quality around the study area contains some heavy traces of coliforms, Iron, lead, Ph and cadmium which is unsafe for human use.