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
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