Impact of Soak away Pit on Quality of Domestic Sources of Water Supply in Tunga, Minna, Niger state.

Abstract

Man’s environment is under constant threat from his own activities resulting from expanding population and this remains one of the biggest challenges to the quality of environment and health. Human activities consist of waste - water with varieties of potentially harmful substances. Soak-away contains high level of organic matter. This study examines the impact of Soak-away pits on quality of domestic source of water in Tunga area of Minna, Niger State. The study is a cross-sectional study with respondent selected from fixed points of the study area. Five sampling locations were randomly selected within the study area. Questioners was designed and distributed to respondents around the study location in order to get relevant informations for the study. The data entry was subjected to descriptive statistics. The findings shows that 75 (82%) of the sampled population are of the opinion that there is no provision of proper sock away pit, while 17 (18%) of the sampled population are of the opinion that there is provision of proper sock away pit in the study area. The study concludes that safety of groundwater could not be guaranteed even when technical and public health requirements were followed during siting of water sources and septic tank systems in some cases, especially in terms of distance from water source to soak away. The study recommends that Government should identify areas that are suitable to use septic tanks and boreholes on the same piece of land to avoid groundwater pollution.