Evaluation of Groundwater Quality Characteristics near Two Waste Sites in Ibadan and Lagos,Nigeria

Two industrial and highly populated cities namely Ibadan and Lagos, both located in Southwestern Nigeria have urban migrationproblems and resource limitations. As a result, the development of residential areas near waste sites and the indiscriminate dumping of municipal waste are common in both cities. Orita-Aperin and Oworonsoki neighborhoods in Ibadan and Lagos,respectively, both located near a waste site were studied. The two areas relied on the wells as sources of drinking water hence poor drinking water quality may have health consequences. A totalof 51 ground-water samples (30 wells in Ibadan and 21 wells in Lagos) were monitored seasonally for two years in Ibadan and a year in Lagos. Results from this study revealed that some of theground-water quality constituents determined exceeded the World Health Organization (WHO) standards for drinking water irrespective of source of pollution. Some of the ground-water samples were poor in quality in terms of pH, conductivity, totaldissolved solids, chloride, nitrate, ammonia, COD, Al, Cd, Cr, Fe, Pb, Ni and total coliforms recorded. Thus, ground-water fromsome of these private wells requires further purification to ensure its fitness for human consumption.F-test, one-way parametric analysis of variance (ANOVA), Mann-Whitney `T' test and Kruskal-Wallis H-test applied to upgradient and downgradient concentrations suggest impact ofthe waste sites on ground-water quality. The Mann-Whitney testonly suggests that the downgradient values of Fe (Ibadan: dryseason (1), sulfate (Ibadan: rainy season (2) and pH (Lagos: dry season (2) were significant at 5% level of significance. For Ibadan wells, the Kruskal-Wallis test showed that variances ofspecific conductivity, dissolved solids, and chloride for Ibadanupgradient and downgradient values were unequal. Also variances of specific conductivity and dissolved solids for upgradient anddowngradient values in Lagos were unequal at 5% level of significance. Three downgradient wells in Lagos and four downgradient wells in Ibadan had significant impact due to leachate migration into drinking wells.