Assessment of Radionuclide Concentrations in Some Public Water in Use in Makurdi Metropolis of Benue State, Nigeria

This work assessed the concentration of radioactive elements found in some public water samples in use in Makurdi metropolis of Benue State, Nigeria. The study area is an agrarian community where agro-chemicals are normally used and there is a frequent health breakdown as a result of water sources in use. It was carried out in Makurdi between March September 2007. Geiger Muller Counter was used to measure the radiation concentrations in the water samples from hand dug wells, streams, boreholes, tapwater, bottled water and sachet water from five geographical locations of the metropolis (East, West, North, South and Central). Ten grab samples from each water source were collected and laboratory analyses were carried out in the Physics Department of Benue State University. It was observed that the highest radiation was in borehole ranging from 2.86 X 10-1 Bq (in the East) to 3.69 X 10-1Bq (in the North). The least radiation was from bottled water 0.55 X 10-1 Bq (in the Central) to 0.77 X 10-1Bq (in the South)