POTABLE WATER QUALITY ESTIMATION OF SELECTED HOSTELS IN PORT HARCOURT

POTABLE WATER QUALITY ESTIMATION OF SELECTED HOSTELS IN PORT HARCOURT

This study is aimed at estimating the portable water quality of some selected hostels in Port Harcourt.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

• BACKGROUND OF STUDY

Water is one of the basic elements of life and also a major necessity globally to daily living. Approximately 71% of the surface of the earth is covered with water. From the number, there is only about 2.5% of surface water such as rivers, lakes, etc. which every economic activity such as agriculture, fisheries, mining district, transport, and tourism need for their water resources (David et al, 2016). The most important uses of water to humans are for drinking, washing, and bathing. Moreover, the water demand is not only for human beings but also for aquatic life that uses water as their habitats and this aquatic life eventually becomes a source of protein for humans (Aweng, et al, 2011).

Nowadays in increasing urbanization, agricultural and industrial practice brings a lot of bad effects on both surface and groundwater and which will rapidly decrease the water quality in terms of physical, chemical, and biological characteristics (Ahmed Zaharin et al, 2014). Balok River is one of the polluted rivers and this is because of the agricultural and industrial practices in the area. Therefore, water pollution is no longer a new threat to humans in the urbanization development.

The quality of water is generally reduced by point and non-point source pollutants. Point source pollutants are sewage, industrial effluent, and so on while non-point source pollutants are the urban and rural run-off from residential areas which make river water unsuitable for human activities. Legislations are available in the form of the Environmental Quality Act (EQA) 1997, which deals mainly with point source pollutants from the domestic and industrial sources. Other regulatory acts are available to protect the rivers. If the river is spared from pollutants, there will be good quality water which is very appropriate for running activities such as recreational and social. The discharge of sewage needs to be reduced to prevent any contamination of the water.

• STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Water pollution is the contamination of water bodies that occur when pollutants are indirectly or directly discharged into water bodies without adequate treatment to remove the harmful sediment (Muyibil et al, 2018). It will give an effect on the ecosystem and human life and become an issue nowadays.  Besides, water resources are gradually becoming polluted and unavailable due to human and industrial activities. According to Rene P (2006), the increasing contamination of freshwater systems with thousands of industrial and natural chemical compounds is one of the key environmental problems facing humanity.

• SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY

Water profile can be used as a tool to determine water quality at various locations based on inputs of pollutants being received by the water.

• SCOPE OF THE WORK

Rivers State University is located in Rivers state. The school has several hostels, occupied by students, and in these hostels, there is no proper channeling of the drainage system, no proper toilet system; so due to these factors, water is contaminated. All these contaminations will affect the quality of the water. Also, it will affect human activities in their life such as cooking, drinking, washing and it will also affect human health. This study is conducted to estimate water quality in various hostels at the university.

• AIM AND OBJECTIVE

The aim and objective of this study are as follows

• To determine the water quality of in Rivers State University
• To provide a solution to the water quality problem.