The major source of drinking water in our local communities is private boreholes, in which the quality of water becomes a public health concern.In an attempt to ascertain the health risk that thepeople are exposed to, this study was conducted to assess the quality of water from private boreholes in Eket Local Government Area. Water samples from the boreholes were subjected to analyses forphysico-chemical characteristics. For this purpose, water samples were collected from ten private boreholes for analyses and compared with the World Health Organization (WHO) permissible guidelines for potable water. Some of the parameters analyzed for by the standard test methods for the examination of water and wastewater were: pH, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, redox potentials, nutrients, trace metals, iron, total hardness, calcium, magnesium, total alkalinity, bicarbonate alkalinity, carbonate, hydroxide and alkalinity. pH values of the water samples gave values that were below the permissible range of 6.5 to 8.5 for potable water, whereas, values for dissolved oxygen, redox potential, total dissolved solids, total hardness, calcium content, magnesium content, sulphate, phosphate, nitrate and sulphide were below the permissible limits for potable water. Alkalinity determination indicated that the water samples from boreholes have predominantly bicarbonate alkalinity, with negligible carbonate and hydroxide alkalinity. Though, the total alkalinity was below the permissible limit, the water samples are likely to form scales in boilers and heaters. The total hardness of the considered samples indicated the hardness classification range of 17.5 g/l to 59.5 mg/l, which is slightly hard and may require minor treatment for drinking and other domestic purposes. Notwithstanding the fact that the exploited aquifer in Eket has shallow depths of between 16.0 m to 30.4 m, values for lead, cadmium, copper, zinc, iron and manganese were below the permissible limits, except in station 1, in which the water has enhanced iron content above the permissible limit of 0.3 mg/l. The water samples had mean salinity of 0.01 %, indicating that there is no salt water intrusion even though Eket is a coastal area. The mean pollution index calculated for all the sample parameters gave values that were below the critical value of one, indicating no contamination of the aquifer by anthropogenic activities.
Etesin et al. (Sat,) studied this question.