Hydrogeochemical properties of groundwater in parts of Abakaliki City, southeastern Nigeria

Bernard I. Odoh, Ahamefula U. Utom, Hilary N. Ezeh, Boniface C. E. Egboka

doi:10.1306/eg.10051111006

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Environmental Geosciences (DEG)

Abstract

DOI:10.1306/eg.10051111006

Hydrogeochemical properties of groundwater in parts of Abakaliki City, southeastern Nigeria

Bernard I. Odoh,¹ Ahamefula U. Utom,² Hilary N. Ezeh,³ Boniface C. E. Egboka⁴

¹Department of Geological Sciences, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria; [email protected]
²Department of Geological Sciences, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria
³Department of Geology and Exploration Geophysics, Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki, Nigeria
⁴Department of Geological Sciences, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria

AUTHORS

Bernard I. Odoh holds a Ph.D. in applied geophysics from Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria. His research area is hydrogeophysics. He is a Senior Lecturer and Director of water resources capacity building network in the Department of Geological Sciences, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria.

Ahamefula U. Utom received a B.Sc. degree in geology and exploration geophysics from Ebonyi State University (Nigeria) in 2007. He is currently a master's candidate in applied geophysics at Nnamdi Azikiwe University and is employed with the Department of Geological Sciences at Nnamdi Azikiwe University (Nigeria). His areas of interest include the application of surface geophysics to study groundwater and environmental contamination.

Hilary Ezeh holds an M.Sc. degree in geology from Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia, specializing in exploration for mineral deposits and a Ph.D. in exploration geochemistry from Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria. Currently, he is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Geology and Exploration Geophysics, Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki, Nigeria.

Boniface C. E. Egboka holds an M.Sc. degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. He is a Consultant and Professor of environmental hydrogeology and the Vice-Chancellor at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria. He is a Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Science, the Nigerian Mining and Geoscience Society, and the Nigerian Association of Hydrogeologist.

ABSTRACT

This study has evaluated the hydrogeochemistry of some parts of the aquifer underlying and near Abakaliki City, Nigeria, to better understand the local groundwater quality conditions. Twelve representative groundwater samples from water boreholes (wells) in the study area were analyzed for their hydrogeochemical properties: pH, electrical conductivity (EC), turbidity, total dissolved solids (TDS), total hardness, chemical oxygen demand, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, Na⁺, K⁺, Equation 1 , Equation 2 , Cl, Equation 3 , and Equation 4 . The aquifer is situated in the fractured shales of Abakaliki Formation. The dominant ions in most samples are Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, Equation 5 , and Cl. Furthermore, strong positive correlations exist between EC-TDS, Na⁺-TDS, Equation 6 , and Equation 7 . Piper trilinear diagrams were used to classify the hydrogeochemical facies, which included Ca-Mg-Cl and Ca-Mg-Na-Cl-SO₄ water types. Ratios of Na-Cl ranged from 0.12 to 0.73, with a mean of 0.55, which is consistent with those of fresh water. The results of this study indicate that the groundwater local to the Abakaliki City poses no threat to human consumption, health, or the environment because the concentrations of physicochemical parameters that can be used to evaluate drinking water quality are within the World Health Organization standard specification.