EVALUATION OF CHEMICAL POLLUTANTS AND ASSOCIATED HEALTH-RISK FROM THREE WATER SOURCES IN BALI METROPOLIS, BALI LGA, TARABA STATE

Abstract

A pollutant is any substance that interacts with an environment and is capable of causing harm to both organisms and the environment itself. Examples of chemical pollutants include; heavy metals, pesticides residues etc. Three water samples were collected in a clean 750ml container from different sources (river, borehole and well) in different areas of Bali town, Bali local government area of Taraba State. Heavy metal concentration and physicochemical analysis was carried out. Results from analysis showed mean iron (Fe) concentration to be 24.52mg/L (river), 4.13mg/L (Well) and 3.12mg/L (borehole) which are higher in all the water samples when compared with the iron tolerable limits of 0.3mg/L by World Health Organization (WHO), United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and Nigerian Standard for Drinking Water Quality (NSDWQ) whereas, zinc (Zn) and cupper (Cu) are only higher in river water with a tolerable limit of 5.0mg/L, manganese was found to be higher in all the water samples analyzed with a tolerable limit of 0.1 mg/L which was slightly higher compared to those of standards. The Physicochemical parameters analyzed showed that river water was more turbid with a value of 6.4NTU which was above tolerable limit of 5.0NTU as contained in the standard. However, river water with a higher conductivity value of 344.15uS/cm was still below the tolerable limits of 1000µS/cm when compared with water samples from well and borehole. Proper water treatment was recommended to be carried out on the water from well, borehole and river sources before human consumption in order to prevent bioaccumulation which may lead to health-related problems associated with its consumption.