An assessment of water quality of boreholes around selected land fills in Kano Metropolis

Abstract

The quality of ground water in some selected land fill sites within Kano metropolis were assessed during the wet season for pH, turbidity, conductivity, total solids (TS) suspended solids (SS), total dissolved solids (TDS), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Dissolved oxygen (DO), chloride, sulphate nitrate, phosphate, Zinc, Lead, Nickel, Cadmium, Iron, Manganese, Copper, and chromium. The analysis revealed that some samples were acidic and some alkaline with a pH range of (6.80 – 7.75) and at the methogenic stage. All the samples have low BOD (28.5 – 46.0mg/dm³) and COD (55.00 – 89.25mg/dm³) values indicating that active methogenesis process is taking place at the sites. The suspended solids, total dissolved solid and turbidity results varied significantly between sites. All samples contained low concentration of nitrate and sulphate with phosphate, chloride, lead and manganese in high ranges when compared with the national regulatory standard (SON). Comparison of the water samples showed that the pollution potentials of Gyadi-gyadi and Ubagama samples are higher than those of Hajj camp and Maimalari. The study revealed the need to treat the ground water samples in these dump sites.