Design of Slow Sand Filter Technology for Rural Water Treatment in Girei, Adamawa State, North Eastern Nigeria

Treatment of water has a great influence on the use of water for domestic use both in rural and urban areas. Slow sand filtration involves the use of beds of sand for the filtration of water. The reason for designing slow sand filter for rural water treatment is to make treatment of water easy and qualitative. This research involves the use of three tanks, filter beds, filter media and filtrate tanks. Raw water is filtered by the layers of different sand particles, and conveyed by pipe after filtration to the filter media that has diatomite as the sieving agent which filters the water before been conveyed into the filtrate tank. From test carried out, the result shows that slow sand filter with filter technology is moderately efficient for water treatment. The design of slow sand filter technology applied appropriate technology; hence the ease of filtering raw water as well as improvement in taste and odor of water being treated was achieved. However, chemical and biological contaminants were not considered in this research

Estimation of Aquifer Transmissivity Using Dar Zarrouk Parameters Derived from Resistivity Soundings on the Floodplain of River Dadin Kowa, Gombe State, Northeastern Nigeria

The shallow alluvial aquifers on the floodplain are the major sources of water supply for the dry season farming activities. The research is aimed to estimate the aquifer transmissivity of the alluvial formations on the floodplain using Dar Zarrouk Parameters derived from geoelectric soundings. Ten profiles of vertical electric soundings (VES) using schlumberger array method with the aid of a sensitive ABEM Signal Averaging System (SAS) was in the investigation. The results revealed five geoelectric layers on the alluvial formation of the floodplain. There were three, four, five, six and seven layers beneath the alluvial formation. The results were compared with the alluvial floodplain lithologies at each sounding points with resistivity values ranging between 0.98 Ωm to 4,113 Ωm and depths varying from 0.01 to 146 m. The geoelectric sequence of the alluvial formations of the flood plain reveals semi aquifer system. The aquifer hydraulic characteristics indicated that the transverse resistance R ranged between 436.8 Ωm2 to 77,324.40 Ωm2 with a mean value of 11,963.71 Ωm2. The longitudinal conductance S ranged between 0.0026 to 1.792 with an average value of 0.26348. The hydraulic conductivity value across the floodplain ranged between 0.16 m/day to 29.79 m/day with a mean value of 5.597 m/day. The transmissivity values obtained for the various layers range between 1.6 m2/day to 834.1 m2/day with an average value of 128.86 m2/day. The results of the hydraulic head reveal that the floodplain recharges the River. High groundwater potential zone occurs in the southern part of the study are

Hydrogeological and Engineering Investigations of Gully Sites in Zing and Environs, Northeastern Nigeria

The research area is characterized by problems of gully erosion which have resulted in the destruction of roads and uprooting trees of economic importance. Reduction in the area of arable and other agricultural land, which become divided into smaller parcels and leads to increased farming cost. Hydrogeological and engineering investigations were conducted in Zing and environs, Taraba State of Nigeria to characterize the rock materials that aid gully erosion in the area. The methods involve three (3) stages, reconnaissance survey, detailed field mapping and laboratory analysis. The area is underlain by porphyritic granite and Biotite granite. The geologic structures include fractures, dykes, and veins which trend NNW to SSE, NW-SE and NNE to SSW. The results of geotechnical parameters indicate that the plastic limit ranges between 0 to 24.2%, liquid limit ranges from 20.1% to 43.9%, plasticity index ranges between 11.2 to 19.7%. The coefficient of uniformity ranges between 4.2 and 11.5 while the coefficient of curvature ranged between 0.53 and 1.99. The optimum moisture content was from 8.3 to 9.8%, while maximum dry density is from 1.75 to 1.91mg/m³. The angle of internal friction was between 28° to 40°, while the cohesion is between 0 to 54KN/m². The statistical grain size methods gave hydraulic conductivity values ranging from 2.35 x 10-3m/s to 8.64 x 10-5m/s. The hydraulic head distribution map indicates that the gully sites are located in the discharge areas. The discharge areas are characterized by high hydrostatic pressure which decreases effective stress and in turn reduces the shear strength of materials, enhance, internal erosion in form of piping and cave ins in the discharge areas. From the results of the study, recommendations such as sand mining/excavation along the rivers should be avoided, ridging perpendicular to river bank are reduced, dumping of refuse on the river channels and floodplains should be discouraged and houses should not be constructed along the river bank