Water Quality Assessment of Some Selected Hand Dug Wells and a Borehole in North Eastern Parts of Bauchi Metropolis, Nigeria

Water samples were taken from six hand dug wells and a borehole for physico-chemical and microbial analysis to ascertain its quality, type and suitability for domestic, livestock and irrigation purposes. The ranges of results of the physico-chemical parameters are: temperature (28-31.5)oC, Conductivity (170-650)µs/cm, turbidity (1.0-90.8)NTU, and pH(7.0-8.5). Other chemical parameters include: cations -  Ca2+(25.6 – 72.0)mg/l , Na+(23.1 – 75.87)mg/l, K+(0.14 – 78.3)mg/l, Mg2+(1.46 – 20.75)mg/l, Fe2+(0.0 – 1.1)mg/l, Cu2+(0.0 – 0.49)mg/l, Zn2+(0.00 – 1.74)mg/l, Pb2+(0.00 – 0.001)mg/l, Cr6+(0.00 – 0.02)mg/l and anions – HCO3-(54.0 – 140.0)mg/l, Cl-(32.5 – 114.96)mg/l,  F-(0.23 – 0.77)mg/l,  CO32-(32.4 – 84.0)mg/l, SO42-(10.31 – 121.0)mg/l,  NO3-(1.08 – 75.7)mg/l, NO2-(0.013 – 0.69)mg/l. Data values analyzed from the results obtained indicate the water to be Ca-HCO3, K-HCO3, Mg-HCO3 and Na-Cl water type containing high concentrations of some major, minor and trace cations and anions which fall above the maximum permissible limits of the National Standard for Drinking Water Quality (NSDWQ) of Nigerian Industrial Standard (NIS), 2007. Physical and microbiological parameters indicate that the water is turbid and contain a high total coliform counts above the NIS set standards for maximum permissible limits. This may be attributed to proximities of soakaways and dumpsites to the wells which may need to be monitored from time to time. The water was also found to be suitable for irrigation. Keywords: Water Quality, Water Type, Irrigation Water