Assessment of Open Well Water Contamination in High Density Residential Area

The study was carried out to ascertain open water quality for human consumption in a high density area where the source of water is limited to open wells and where there are no consideration giving between open well and a pit latrine, soak ways and drainages. Stratified random sampling techniques was use to select nine open wells where samples were taken three times to ascertain and validate the result of the water analysis. Coli form test was used to determine the presence of microbial contaminates, pocket conductivity meter was used to determine the concentration of some chemical element and compound and spectrophotometer was used to analyze some physical parameters. From the result of the analysis it was discovered that nitrate exceed the limit in about 75% of the samples analyzed while e- coli bacteria was detected in 8 out of the 9 samples analyzed. But Iron was found to fall below the minimum requirement. The study while considering that the sources of both nitrate and e coli is normally from sewages it can be attributed to lack of conforming to established standard of 30 meters between well water and nearest sewer thereby allowing the possible seepage of the contaminates contaminants into the underground water and also the open well practice allows for susceptibility to non-point source of nitrate through pollution from surface water runoff. The study conclude that there is need for another source of domestic water supply to the area and recommend the use of other additional water purification techniques that is consumer friendly for households uses.