THE PUBLIC HEALTH IMPLICATION OF CONSUMING SURFACE WATER IN CONTAMINATED SITES, IN AKAMKPA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, CROSS RIVER STATE.

Abstract

Heavy metals and other municipal waste in addition to anthropogenic activities have been observed in surface streams.  Since humans consume water every day, it became imperative to evaluate the physicochemical parameters of water and heavy metals concentration in surface streams towards documenting the water quality and streams at Camp2 village, Akamkpa Local Government Area, Cross River State.

Methodology: Sample collection bottles were used as specie materials which are really cleaned with substance, cleaned with liquid accompanied by real liquid previous placing in 5%HNO3 for over 24hours. Liquid species were gathered from the surface water bodies by simply scooping. Using plastic bowels into 5litre acid washed polypropylene containers. Samples were collected in two study site, the samples were analyzed for various heavy metals and physicochemical parameters i.e. pH, D.O, Temp, Electrical Conductivity, Total dissolved oxygen, Turbidity, and Total hardness by using standard methods and procedures while heavy metals such Ni, Cd, pb, Hg, As, were also analyzed using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS).  Results: The physicochemical parameters and heavy metals shows that all the parameters analyzed fell below WHO (2010) Standards for drinking water except for temperature and total hardness which are significantly(P<0.05) within WHO Standards (2010). Also, the results of the heavy metals concentration were above permissibility limits. Hence, these values were above WHO standard (0.1mg/l) and FAO/WHO standards of (0.2mg/kg) while others were within joint FAO/WHO standard limit.  Conclusion: Contamination of surface streams in the community has threating both humans’ health and animals including water quality. Therefore, the introduction of physical and chemical heavy metal remediation is required to protect our surface streams within the Environment.