Comparative Assessment of Pipe-Borne Water and Groundwater Quality and Their Health Implication in Gwagwalada Town, Nigeria

Abstract

The study aimed to comparatively assess pipe-borne water and groundwater quality in Gwagwalada town and their health implication, by collecting three pipe-borne water and five groundwater samples from selected points at Phases 1, 2, 3, Ungwan Dodo, Ungwan Shanu and Dagiri and analyzing them for parameters such as pH, EC, DO, Hardness, Total Chlorine, Chloride, Nitrate, Ammonia, Sulphate, Phosphate, Fe, Pb, Zn, Cu, Cd, Mn, Al and Total coliform count. Concentration of analysed parameters for the pipe-borne water samples were compared with those of the groundwater samples and both were also compared with WHO and FME.T-test was used to test the hypothesis that there is no significant difference in concentrations of the analysed parameters between pipe-borne water and groundwater samples. Result of the study showed that the concentration of most of the parameters are higher in the groundwater than in the pie-borne water samples. Parameters such as pH, EC, Total hardness, sulphate, phosphate, ammonia and copper for both pipe-borne water and groundwater samples were within WHO/FME standards, while manganese and faecal coli forms are higher than the standards across all samples. Chloride, nitrate, cadmium, iron, zinc and aluminium are higher than the standard in groundwater samples. Total chlorine has higher concentration in pipe-borne water samples while Lead has elevated concentration in PB2, PB3, GW3, GW4 and GW5. T-test results showed that there is significant difference in the concentrations of analysed parameters between pipe-borne water and groundwater sample. The study concludes that the groundwater is more polluted than the pipe-borne water and that the continuous consumption of the groundwater without pre-treatment may have adverse health implications. The study recommends among other things, the location of wells and boreholes away from areas where human activities can pollute them; and the provision of simple and affordable water purifiers in the study area.