COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF WATER FROM BOREHOLES AND RAINWATER STORED IN RESERVOIRS

SUMMARY

This study provides the of water quality analysis of boreholes and rainwater in Ekosodin community, Benin city, Edo state Nigeria. For sample collection, the community was divided into two zones with rainwater and borehole samples gotten from one zone each. The aim of this study was to determine if water used by the residents of the community is good for drinking in comparison with the WHO and NSDWQ standards. The level of physio-chemical properties was also determined. The method used for analyzing the physio-chemical properties was the Standard Analytical Procedures for Water Quality Analysis (Hydrology Project, May 1999) which involved the use of reagent in reacting with the samples and calculating the results of the reaction to obtain the final values. Considering the results obtained from the analysis, the following conclusions were drawn: i. The rain water is harder than that of borehole water which can be softened by boiling. ii. Some boreholes in the contain mildly acidic water which is not good for drinking. iii. All heavy metals analyzed fell within the WHO and NSDWQ standards except manganese which did not meet the WHO standards but met the NSDWQ standards. iv. The average amount of TDS and COD in both rainwater and boreholes are almost the same. 61 v. The rainwater and borehole water are bad for drinking with a high WQI value of 56.96 and 60.75 respectively.