Assessment of the relationship between microbiological quality of groundwater sources and the status of the sources. Issue 3 (7th May 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Fadipe, Olusola Olayemi; Oladepo, Kamar Taiwo; Oguntola, Babajide Benjamin; Zubayr, Rasheedah Olamide
• Is Part Of: Environmental quality management. Volume 31:Issue 3(2022)
• Page Start: 47
• Page End: 57
• Publication Date: 2021-05-07
• Subjects: boreholes -- hand‐dug wells -- microbiological quality -- MPN -- spring -- well characteristics; Industries -- Environmental aspects -- Periodicals; Environmental protection -- Periodicals; Industrial management -- Periodicals; Environmental engineering -- Periodicals; 658.408
• DOI: 10.1002/tqem.21750
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1088-1913

Abstract

Abstract: Groundwater contamination is now a global issue, and the sources of contamination differ from countries. The study reports the assessment of microbiological characteristics of different groundwater sources in Ilesa west local government area for potability status. Also, it examined the strength of the relationship between the microbiological results with the construction and sanitation characteristics of the sources to determine the cause of the pollution. The work involved an on‐site survey of 69 drinking water sources extracted from a gridded map of the study area to gather information on water sources, treatment, construction, and sanitary status. Water sampling from each household was conducted during rainy and dry seasons for microbiological characteristics using the most probable number (MPN) of counting coliforms. Most of the water samples were heavily polluted and exceeded the WHO guidelines with MPN/100 mL ranging from 0 to > 1.1 × 10 3 . The Kendall's tau_b correlation revealed that the water source in form of hand‐dug wells has the strongest correlation ( r = 0.94) with the microbiological result. The hand‐dug wells that were partially lined, and those not lined at all, correlate ( r = 0.95 and r = 0.94), respectively, with the microbiological results. The microbiological loads of all the water sources are high, and the status of the casing has proved to be the major factor influencing the pollution in the hand‐dug wells. There is a need to enforce the construction standards for household hand‐dug wells, perform routine water quality assessment for boreholes, and authority should encourage the treatment of all water sources before drinking.