COMPARISON OF THE QUALITIES OF WELL WATER AND TAP WATER

Format: MS WORD |  Chapter: 1-5 |  Pages: 65-80

CHAPTER ONE

1.1 INTRODUCTION

An adequate supply of safe drinking water is one of the major prerequisites for a healthy life, but waterborne diseases is still one of the causes of death in many parts of the world, particularly in children. It is also a significant economic constraint in many subsistence economic.

Water can be described as a substance upon which every living creative depends for survival. As human beings water is so essential for day to day activities to such an extent that we cannot get anything done without water.

Drinking water is derived from two basic sources-Surface waters, such as rivers, and reservoirs and underground water. Procedure to produce safe potable water was developed in the 19th century, when it became clear that many serious epidemic were related to contaminated water. All water contain natural contaminants, particularly inorganic contaminants that arise from the geological strata through which water flows and to a varying extent, anthropogenic pollution by both microorganism and chemicals.(Awake Magazine, 2001)

In general, underground water is less vulnerable to pollution than surface waters. There are a number of possible source of man-made contaminants, some of which are more important than others. These   fall into the categories of point and diffuse source. Discharges from industrial premises and sewage treatment work are point sources and as such are more readily identifiable and controlled; runoff from agricultural land and from hard surface, such as roads, are not so obvious, or easily controlled. Such source can give rise to significant variation in the contaminant load over time. In other words chemicals, physical, and biological characteristics of water are of major importance in determining either or not water is suitable for domestic, industrial or agricultural use.(Okiemen and Okiemen 2000).

Even though the ground is an excellent mechanism filtering out particulate matter, such as leave

soil and bugs dissolved chemical can still occur in large enough concentration in ground  water

to cause problems. Underground water get contaminated from the surface. Organic pollutant such as petroleum hydro carbon and detergent which may visibly builds up in an environment, organic chemical, generally breakdowns with time in the environment but metals do not and easily accumulate and concentrated in the living systems. There is also the possibility of spills of chemicals from industry and agriculture and slurries from intensive farm units that can contain pathogens. In Some countries, badly sited latrines and septic tanks are a significant source of contamination, especially of well. Local industries can also give rise to contamination of water source, particularly when chemicals are handled and disposed of without proper care. The runoff or leaching of nutrients into slow flowing or still surface waters can result in excessive growth of cyanobacteria or blue-greenalgae. Many species give rise to nuisance chemicals that can cause taste and interfere with drinking water treatment. However they frequently produce toxins, which are of concern for health, particularly if there is only limited treatment. If treatment is not optimized, unwanted residues of chemicals used in water treatment can also cause contamination and give to sediments in water pipes. Contaminated drinking water distribution may arise from materials such as Iron, which can corrode to release Iron oxide, or from ingress of pollutants into the distribution system. Diffusion through plastic pipes can occur, for   example when oil is spilt on the surrounding soil, giving rise to taste  or dour problems. Contamination can also take place in consumers premises from materials used in plumbing, such as lead or copper or from the back flow of liquid into the distribution system as a consequence   of improper connections .Such contaminants can be either chemical or microbiological.

Drinking water treatment as applied to public water supplies consists of a series of barriers in a treatment train that will vary according to the requirements of the supply and the nature and vulnerability of the source. Broadly these comprise system for coagulation and flocculation, filtration and oxidation. The most common oxidation disinfectant used in chlorine. This provides an effective and robust barriers to pathogens and provides an easily measured residual that can act as a marker to show that disinfection has been carried out and as a preservative in water distribution.

The basis on which drinking water safety is judged is national standards or international guidelines. The most important of these are the WHO Guidelines for Drinking-Water Quality 2. These are revised on a regular basis and are supported by a range of detailed documents describing many of the aspec8ts of water safety. The Guidelines are now based on Water Safety Plans that encompass a much more proactive approach to safety from source-to-tap.

1.2. JUSTIFICATION

Water contamination has been the major problem in both urban and mostly rural area of Nigeria. All water contains natural contaminants, particularly inorganic contaminants that arise from the geological strata through which water flows and to a varying extent, anthropogenic pollution by both microorganism and chemicals. In general, underground water is less vulnerable to pollution than surface water.

Television village is a rural area found in Kaduna south, it is a commercial area, and are such faced with a lots of pollution from both commercial and house hold activities. These pollutants contaminate the water found in this area. This is because, this pollutants are not properly managed and hence, could contaminate water source by underground movement of water. The  intake of  this contaminated water could lead to  diseases such as diarrhea, typhoid, cholera etc. The above diseases have been the major problem associated with the people of television village. This work aims at assessing the quality of both taps and well water in this area of Kaduna state which has not been done before.

1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVES

A. AIM

The aims are to compare the qualities of well water and tap water, from Television Village and this is achieved through the following objectives.

B. OBJECTIVES

Determination of the concentration of heavy metals, chloride, chromium, pH, total suspended solid, alkalinity conductivity etc. in both well and taps water.

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