Investigation of water quality used by communities in the Savelugu- Nanton District of the Northern Region, Ghana

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2015-11-01
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Communities in Savelugu-Nanton district depend on boreholes, hand-dug wells pipe borne water and dams. The objective of this study was to investigate the drinking water quality of these sources between January 2013 to June 2013. Three hundred and thirty six (336) water samples were collected from boreholes, hand-dug wells, dams and tabs for laboratory analysis. Total coliform and faecal coliform were enumerated using the membrane filtration method. Physico-chemical parameters such as total hardness, phosphate, chloride, total alkalinity, fluoride, nitrate, iron, manganese, magnesium, calcium, sodium, dissolved oxygen, total dissolved solids and conductivity were determined in the laboratory. Temperature, turbidity, pH were also determined in the field. The result showed that higher coliform counts were recorded for dams and hand-dug wells but very low counts in the boreholes and zero counts for pipe borne water. Values recorded for all physico-chemical properties were within world health organisation (WHO) guideline values except turbidity values for the dams and iron concentration for hand-dug wells and dams in the district. The ranking in terms of quality from the research are in the order; pipe borne water> bore hole water > hand-dug well water > dam water. Water from shallow hand dug wells and dams upon which the communities depend is of poor quality as these are sited close to refuse pits, latrines and areas accessible to domestic animals. Generally, some water samples had values of the physico-chemical properties lower than world health organisation (WHO) guideline values indicating the acceptability of the water for domestic use, but for the biological properties, turbidity and iron in dams need further treatment before they will be safe for domestic use.
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A Thesis Submitted to the Department of Theoretical and Applied Biology, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science And Technology In Partial Fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the MSc. Degree in Environmental Science.
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