This study investigates groundwater suitability in relation to leachate contamination from dumpsites in Calabar Municipality, Cross River State, Nigeria, an environmental and public health issue in urban areas. The research aimed to examine the suitability of groundwater for drinking in the study area. Nine groundwater samples were collected from three sample locations, and five leachate samples were collected from Lemna Dumpsite. Physicochemical parameters—including Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), heavy metals, and Total Dissolved Solids (TDS)—were measured. The study applied one-sample t-tests and factor analysis to identify contamination patterns and relationships among the measured variables. The findings revealed that groundwater near dumpsites had significantly higher contamination levels compared to areas farther from the dumpsites. This indicates that leachate from the dumpsites is a primary source of groundwater contamination. The Water Quality Index (WQI) calculated for the groundwater samples from Ikot Effanga was 0.05 against the WHO (2024) standard of 0.01; Ikot Ene Obong was 0.05 against 0.02 mg/l, while Ikot Ansa did not meet the minimum desirable limit of 6.6–8.5 for potable water set by the World Health Organization. The study concludes that improved waste management practices and stricter enforcement of regulations are required in Calabar Municipality. Based on the findings, the following recommendation was made: the establishment of a systematic groundwater monitoring programme to track contamination trends.
Ndoma et al. (Tue,) studied this question.
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