The lack of reliable municipal water supply in the city of Port Harcourt has led to indiscriminate drilling of boreholes by the residents however, the direction of groundwater flow within the entire city has not been established. Hence, the research investigated the flow direction of groundwater in the study area in order to understand the best location for siting septic tanks and dumpsites with respect to the position of the existing or proposed borehole. This was achieved by determining the hydraulic heads (Hh) of twenty boreholes evenly distributed within the city by subtracting the static water level (SWL) from the corresponding earth surface elevation (E) with the use of a GPS and dipmeter. Results revealed that the hydraulic heads ranged from 0.14 – 23.16m while the surface elevation and static water level lies between 1.93 – 39.33m and 1.79 – 17.27m respectively. The contour map of the hydraulic heads indicated that the groundwater flows towards the southern and south-western directions hence, the residents were advised to take into cognizance when sitting dumpsites, landfills, and septic tanks with respect to proposed or existing boreholes.
The quality of groundwater in Port Harcourt was investigated in order to understand the status at different points within the city. This was achieved by obtaining water samples from thirty (30) boreholes evenly distributed within the city at a frequency of three months for a period of one year. The water samples were analyzed for turbidity, total dissolved solids (TDS), pH, electrical conductivity (EC) chloride (Cl), sulphate (SO 4 ), nitrate (NO 3 ) and phosphate (PO 4 ). Others include biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total coliform (TC), iron (Fe), lead (Pb) and manganese (Mn). The laboratory results associated with the various sampled boreholes were subjected to Canadian Water Quality Index (CWQI) and it was noted that the groundwater quality of the sampled boreholes ranged between 76.73 -35.60 on the Canadian index. The index values at the non-sampled boreholes were obtained by mapping the groundwater quality of the entire city using Inverse Distance Weighted (IDW) interpolation technique. The generated map revealed that the quality of groundwater in Port Harcourt deteriorate towards the southern part of the city. Notwithstanding, it was concluded that the groundwater quality within the entire city were either occasionally, frequently or always threatened by anthropogenic and (or) geogenic factors based on the range of the Canadian index values determined.
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