CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF WELL WATER IN SAMARU, ZARIA
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF WELL WATER IN SAMARU, ZARIA
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Date
1984-02
Authors
ALARIBE, HILARY CHIKEZIE
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Abstract
Inadequate supply of treated water in Samaru has
made people resort to the use of well water for
domestic purposes. Some of these well waters contain
substances that are injurous to health. The quality
of these well waters in Samaru, Zaria has been studied.
The samples for the study have been collected from ten
different wells located at different places in Samaru
village and Ahmadu Bello University, main campus,
Zaria.
The wells are chosen after careful consideration
which include the number of people fetching water from
the wells and the frequency at which they do that. The
quality of the water has been ascertained by carrying
out chemical analyses which include — the determination
of total hardness, calcium hardness, magnesium hardness,
non~carbonate hardness, electrical conductivity, pH,
alkalinity, chloride, total residue, sulphate, total
organic nitrogen, total phosphate, dissolved oxygen,
temperature and some metal ions.
Flame photometric technique has been used to
determine sodium, potassium and calcium while magnesium
lead, zinc, iron, manganese, cadmium, copper, arsenic
and nickel have been determined by atomic absorption
spectrophotometry.
The results obtained have been compared with
International Standards for Drinking Water as
recommended by World Health Organisation (WHO).
All the metal ions have been found to be within
the tolerable limit, while total solids, dissolved
oxygen, pH and total hardness have been found to bo
outside the recommended limits in some wells.
In order to reduce the amount of total solid in
the well water (particularly wells 1 - 7 ) , the use of
a chemical coagulant, alum has been studied. The
minimum amount of alum required to treat a bucket
containing about 8 litres of water has been found to
be 2.5g.
To suppress the activity of harmful micro-organ
likely to be present in the water, five table spoons
full of milton, a chemical disinfectant has been
recommended for treatment of a bucket full of the water
Finally, as some of the wells are net properly
maintained, suggestions has been made to the Local
Government Authority as to how these wells could be
maintained.
Description
A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL,
AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT
OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF
SCIENCE IN ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY.
DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY,
FACULTY OF SCIENCE,
AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY,
ZARIA, NIGERIA.
Keywords
CHEMICAL,, ANALYSIS,, WELL,, WATER,, SAMARU, ZARIA