Hydrochemical Assessment of Surface and Groundwater in Some Selected Communities of Borno and Yobe State

Abstract

The study area comprises three communities of Ala, Daura in Borno State and
Kyalari in Yobe State, North-eastern Nigeria which forms part of the Chad Basin.
Twenty-five (25) water samples were collected from major sources which
comprises of nine (9) hand dug wells, ten (10) surface water and six (6) boreholes.
The physical parameters analyzed revealed pH values ranging from 6.5 - 8.1 and
electrical conductivity varies between 67 – 1050 mμ/cm. The results of the
chemical parameters shows that Ca2+ ranges between 3.5 to 66.5 mg/l, while Mg2+
varies from 4.8 to 28.2 mg/l, Na+ and K+ varies between 0.7 to 1241.0 mg/l and 2.0
to 112.0 mg/l respectively. HCO3- ranges from 77.5 mg/l to 337.0 mg/l while Cl-
varies from 4.0 to 160.0 mg/l. The concentration of SO4- varies between 0.7 mg/l
to 283.0 mg/l. This study confirms that they are normal for domestic, agricultural
and small-scale irrigation purposes. The study shows that some cation and anion
are within WHO limits of 2020 permissible limit of drinking water standard except
for WARODI wells which show abnormally higher values above the WHO standard.
The mean concentration of the cations shows that Na+ > Ca2+ > K+ > Mg2+ while for
the anions are HCO3- > SO4- > Cl- respectively.