With increasing population comes the concern for waste disposal with open dumpsites as their only source of waste disposal. The leachate formed from the decomposition of waste materials find its way into the groundwater. This study investigated the geoelectric characteristics and the groundwater quality of boreholes around an open dumpsite in Ogale Community, Eleme Local Government in Rivers State. Four (4) borehole locations with varying distances and depth 50, 100 and 150m including the control location of 2000m apart were employed using Schlumberger configured vertical electric sounding (VES) to determine leachate effect on groundwater contamination, subsurface aquifer protective capacity and lithology corrosively. Sub-surface water samples were collected at the dumpsite at borehole depth (BH D) D50, D100 and D150 representing 50m, l00m and 150m respectively, and a control sample. Results of the selected borehole water samples around the dumpsite showed that pH, temperature and dissolved oxygen (DO) were outside the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Nigerian Standard for Drinking Water Quality (NSDWQ) maximum allowable limits (MAL). The results on leachate from BH D50 and BH D100 that were close to the dumpsite had high chlorides (10.8 and 10.5mg/l) among other metals analyzed like Iron <0.002mg/l, Lead <0.009mg/l, and cadmium <0.002 across distances covered. Total Hardness 11.6, 12.5, 16.4mg/l were considerably lower compare to the control sample 16.9mg/l. The results on microbial content including Coliform count (<1.8MPN/l00ml), and Total Heterotrophic Bacteria (THB) (7.80 and 7.20 x104 cfu/ml) were high in BH D50 and BH D100 and as the distances increase the bacteria count reduces BH D 150 (5.0 x104 cfu/ml. The regression model of R2 = 0.9743, 0.9962 and 0.9981 cross borehole depth shows high level of corrosively of metal. The level of contamination of groundwater was determined using the weighted arithmetic water quality index (WQI) method. The WQI of boreholes indicated 67.7, 67.6 and 68.1 respectively indicating that the water quality is poor and not potable for drinking. This was consistent with the secondary result obtained from the VES analysis which showed weak to moderate aquifer protective capacity. Therefore, due to the corrosive nature of the soil, metal pipes that are prone to corrosion should not be used instead plastic pipes should be used for water conveyance There is also a need for adequate and proper planning, design, construction, and strategic management disposal of waste, as well as the adoption of solid waste re-use and recycling. Also, the implementation of a better sustainable environmental sanitation practice should be implemented.
Barikuma et al. (Fri,) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: