Quality of Potable Water Available to the Residents of Anambra State, Nigeria

Abstract

Public pipe-borne water system had collapsed in Anambra state of Nigeria, for over fifteen years, challenging the residents of the state to resort to alternative sources of potable water, notably, boreholes. It is imperative to continuously assess the quality of the water. In this work, two boreholes each in nineteen communities, one from Aguluzigbo, in three local government areas (Anaocha, Awka-North, Awka-South) in the state were sampled, and tested for pH, Conductivity, Hardness, Total Suspended Solids, Lead, Arsenic, Cadmium, Bacteria and Yeast loads. The water samples were all soft and mostly acidic. While there were not much threats of yeast, the aerobic bacteria counts were above the acceptable limits. The Lead, Arsenic and Cadmium concentrations were above the tolerable limits in most communities in Anaocha and Awka-South. Arsenic, Lead, Cadmium were absent in all the samples in Awka-North except in four communities where Cadmium was present. Suspended solid contents were also high in all the Local Government Areas. Overall, the quality of the water consumed by the people in the selected population calls to question of the water and sanitation component of the public health system.