Water Quality Determination Around Gold and Manganese Mining Area Using Metal Pollution Index and Water Quality Index in South-western part of Tegina Sheet 142 North Central Nigeria

Abstract

Water quality around gold and manganese mine sites in Kawo and Maigiro was investigated; Water Quality Index (WQI) and Metal Pollution Index (MPI) were computed to evaluate suitability for human and animal consumptions. The essence of this research is to interpret complex water data into a simple and understandable language for human benefits. Concentration of determined heavy metal parameters for surface water, hand dug well and borehole waters were done using Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICPOES) and titrimetric methods for the determination of ions in the three water types (surface, hand dug well and borehole water). The WQI result showed that the water suitable for drinking is borehole water while the MPI result revealed that Fe, Mn and Pb contaminated both surface and hand dug well water as a result of mining activities in the area. The result implies that the concentration Fe, Mn and Pb pose a serious threat to people living within the vicinity of mines and this call for urgent attention to remedy the impending danger in the study area.