ABSTRACT

Aba as an industrial and commercial area generates large amount of waste and indiscriminate disposal of waste in Enyimba and its environs has brought about severe environmental issues. Physiochemical and microbiological analysis were carried out for water samples from four boreholes (BH 1, BH 2, BH 3, and BH 4 with distance of 80m, 25 im, 348m and 455m respectively, and an elevation of 59m, 58m, 60m, and 56m respectively) and a leachate sample from the dumpsite to determine the effect of leachate (dumpsite) on the groundwater quality. The total parameters analyzed were twenty one (21), namely; Temperature, pH, Conductivity, TDS, Colour, DO, alkalinity, Nitrate, Nitrate-Nitrogen, Copper, Iron, Chlorine, Chromium, Arsenic, Lead, Zinc, BOD, COD, total bacterial count, total coliform count and E. coli. The temperature of borehole water and leachate ranged from 26.7°C to 29.7°C, and the pH ranged from 5.2 to 6.3 in borehole water indicating toxic pollution, but neutral (pH — 7.1) in leachate sample. Colour (Platinium Cobalt Unit) ranged from 13PCU to 13850PCU in borehole water and leachate. The concentrations of Zinc, Lead, Chromium, Copper, Nitrate, Chlorine and Iron ranged fromO.O9mgll in BH3 to 0.25 in BH 4, Lead 0.001 in BH 3 to 0.125 in BH 1, Chromium 0.014 in BH 3 to 0.037 in BH 2, Copper 0.00 in BH 3 to 0.08 in BH 4, Nitrate 234.2 in BH 4 to 343.0 in BH 1, Chlorine 0.35 in BH 3 to 1.71 in BH 4, and Iron 0.19 in BH 3 to 0.42 in BH 4 respectively. In the Bacteriological analysis, Total Bacteria Count, Total Coliform Count and E. co/i were analyzed with mean value of 62.00, 23.73 and 6.50 respectively. The variation in concentration of microbiological parameters was in respect to distance from the dumpsite and elevation of the sampling point. There is therefore a need for adequate planning, design, construction and location of dumpsites to ameliorate groundwater, surface water and soil pollution in residential areas.