Quality Assessment of Wastewater Released by Funtua Textile Limited, North Western Nigeria

Abstract

Sani Uba, C. O. Nwokem,  Divine C. Ikeh,  O. S. Adeosun, K. Abel, M. M. Ruma, and  L. N. Nwagu

This research is focused on the assessment of the levels of physicochemical parameters and Water Quality Index (WQI) of wastewater samples collected from Funtua Textile and its environment using standard analytical methods. The results obtained were compared to those of the world health organization WHO (2011) recommended levels. Some of the analysed physicochemical parameters were carbonate ion (CO₃^2-), chloride ion (Cl^-), calcium ion (Ca²⁺), nitrate ion (NO₃^-), total hardness (TH), colour and pH. The concentrations of CO₃^2- , Cl^-, TH, Ca²⁺ and NO₃^- were in the ranges of 317.7±5.6 (P10) to 498.0±1.6 (P1), 160.0±0.2 ) (P8) to 199.5± 0.6 (P1), 282.0±0.13 (P10) to 8837.9±0.2 (P7), 222.9±0.3 (P3) to 1518.2±0.00 (P1) and 44.1±0.3 (P9) to 57.9±0.30 mg/L, respectively. Those of pH and color were; 7.9±0.00 (P8 and P9) to 8.9±0.00 (P3) and 5.0±0.00 (P4, P7, P8, P9) to 60.0±0.0 0 (P1), respectively. Thus the concentrations of TH were found to be above the WHO (2011) permissible limit across the sampling points, while the levels of Cl^- and pH were found to be within the permissible limit set by WHO (2011). However, the levels of CO₃^2- and Ca²⁺ across the sampling points were above the recommended levels set by the Nigerian Industrial Standard (NIS, 2007). The levels of the physicochemical parameters analysed across the sampling points were in the following trend: P1>P3>P5>P4>P2> P6>P10>P7>P8>P9. The WQI recorded in this study was 61.58, this value falls into the poor category which is normally in the range of 51-75. Thus, the samples were found to be poor for use in both domestic and agricultural purposes unless subjected to further treatment. This is because, good quality water should be free from both chemical and biological contaminations, and must be acceptable in terms of color, taste, and odour. Generally, P1 was found to be the most contaminated and P9 the least contaminated. The results reveal that there was no significant difference in the levels of the analyzed physicochemical parameters at 95% (P< 0.05) confidence limit across the sampling sites. This clearly shows that the samples have a common pollution source.