Assessment of Household Water Quality from Selected Storage Vessels used in a South-Western Rural Community, Nigeria

Abstract

Water is an important requirement for life but its contamination via natural and anthropogenic activities is of great concern. This study determined some physicochemical parameters of drinking water from the main source (borehole), and selected storage vessels in Abimbola, Ayedaade Local Government Area, Osun State, Nigeria. About 10 household water samples were collected randomly from the 70 households in the village. The major water storage vessels used by the villagers were clay pots. Only about one-fifth of the households used plastic containers. All the physico-chemical parameters assessed were within permissible limits of the World Health Organization and Standards Organization of Nigeria’s drinking water guidelines except for Lead and nitrite. Furthermore, water stored in clay pots had significantly higher levels of Nitrate (p=0.04), Nitrite (p=0.04), Sulphate (p=0.04), Lead (p=0.03), Iron (p=0.04), and Manganese (p=0.04) than those stored in plastic containers. Results suggest that the type of storage vessels used could influence the physicochemical quality of the water stored in them. Also, basic water quality monitoring needs to be conducted routinely to ascertain and maintain high quality water supply per time.