Effects of solid waste on physico-chemical water quality of unprotected wells in Brockdale, Bindura

Author

Kadema, Priscilla R.

Title

Effects of solid waste on physico-chemical water quality of unprotected wells in Brockdale, Bindura

Abstract

Waste disposal sites create a lot of leachates, which includes a lot of chemicals that can contaminate ground water. Observing the concentration of probable pollution at a number of sampling sites can assist to decide the effect of solid waste on unprotected wells. The physico-chemical quality of groundwater at Brockdale, Bindura were studied within the month of February. A total of 39 samples were collected from thirteen wells and analyzed for pH, Nitrates, Lead, Copper, Iron, Manganese, TDS and EC at the Bindura University Laboratory. All statistical tests were performed at alpha level 0.05 using IBM SPSS Version 20. Pearson correlation and GIS maps were used to show the correlation distance between the wells and dumpsite. One way ANOVA showed that physicochemical concentration was significantly different (p<0.05) among all the wells. One sampled T-test showed a significant difference (p<0.05) and the physicochemical concentrations of TDS, EC, Nitrates, Iron and Manganese were below the WHO drinking water standards expect pH, lead and copper concentrations were above the WHO water quality guidelines threshold. It was recommended that government agencies such as EMA and Bindura municipalit y should engage in more research to monitor contaminant levels and plan mitigation strategies. At the same time Bindura municipality should collect the garbage twice per week to avoid the illegal dumping of garbage.

Date

May 2022

Publisher

BUSE

Keywords

Pollution

Bindura University laboratory

Unprotected wells

Physico-chemical water quality

Supervisor

Ms Masona