Assessment of Quality of Drinking Water from Ogun State, Nigeria

Human survival is largely dependent on the quality of available drinking water. It is worth of knowing that drinking water from any source contain amount of trace elements. This study investigated the physiochemical parameters and analyzed the trace elements concentration in drinking water in Ogun State, Southwestern Nigeria. Water samples were collected from all the local government areas of the State. The pH, electrical conductivity and trace element of each sample were determined using the pH meter, electrical conductivity meter and atomic absorption spectrometer (AAS) respectively. The pH measured varies between 5.02 and 7.35 and the electrical conductivity obtained ranged between 23.7 and 336 μScm-1. The trace elements determined in the samples were Copper (Cu), Calcium (Ca), Chromium (Cr), Zinc (Zn), Iron (Fe), Manganese (Mn) and Nickel (Ni) with mean concentrations 71.72, 0.53, 0.44, 0.08, 0.36, 0, 0.002 mgl-1 and respectively. The study revealed that 80% of the water samples were acidic and electrical conductivity measured were within set limit except for a location. The trace element concentrations measured were within acceptable limits except for copper concentation that exceeded the set limit for drinking water. The study therefore recommended periodic monitoring of the water in order to ascertian the quality of water supply to the entire State