Statistical Variation of Physico-Chemical Properties of Shallow Wells Used for Agricultural Activities in an Agrarian Community, North Central Nigeria.

Abstract

Water quality is gradually falling due to human activities, thus making clean water for both domestic and agricultural activities scarce. Population growth is expected to directly or indirectly move up from its current status by about 55%, thus increasing water stress or severe water scarcity over the next generation. This study is aimed at statistically ascertaining and determining the physico-chemical properties of some hand-dug wells in Niykangbe, an agrarian community in Nigeria. A total of twenty five samples were collected for each year during the dry season for a period of three years. Replicate samples were collected on monthly bases for a period of five months during the years 2014, 2015 and 2016. The results obtained indicated that aluminum, cyanide and manganese were not present in the water samples. The pH ranged between 7.10 and 7.70, electric conductivity ranged between 157 and 467 μs/cm and the temperature ranged between 30℃ and 33℃. The nitrate content ranged between 5.00 and 67.30 mg/l while nitrite ranged between 0.02 and 0.09 mg/l. The analysis should be that most of the parameters were still within the recommended standards of NSDWQ and WHO. It was concluded that intermittent test is carried out to ascertain the level of fitness of the various water samples for both domestic and agricultural use.