The inhabitants of Akure Metropolis, southwestern Nigeria, depend solely on groundwater for their domestic, industrial and irrigation purposes. There is a need to delineate recharge and discharge areas for assessment and management of groundwater in these areas. One hundred and ninety (190) dug wells were selected for this assessment. Elevation and water table data aided accurate delineation of recharge, discharge and groundwater divide areas. Thirty-six wells representative of recharge and discharge areas were subjected to pollution assessment [DRASTIC, water quality index (WQI) and runoff potential]. The results revealed that the recharge areas have higher pollution potential and runoff amount than the discharge areas. This implied that groundwater sourced from recharge areas was more pollution prone than that sourced from discharge areas. WQI results revealed that the waters from recharge and discharge areas fall within excellent, good, poor, and unsuitable quality categories. Hydrogeochemical results revealed that concentrations of cations and anions are in order of Ca 2+ > Mg 2+ > K + > Na + and HCO 3 − > Cl − > SO 4 2− with a predominant Ca-HCO 3 facies typifying water from a basement complex environment. Gibbs plot and chloro-alkaline index affirmed the rock dominance and existence of imprints of ion-exchange processes influencing the groundwater quality. Intense weathering activities aided with long resident time spent by the water in the voids of the aquifer media are characteristic in this terrain. Recharge of precipitating water through infiltration into the weathered basement aquifers is a pointer to the greater yield of water in the wells. The possibility that precipitation-weathering process has led to the increase in concentrations of all ionic species and possible pollution of the groundwaters from the recharge and discharge areas cannot be ruled out at all.
The inhabitants of Ore and its environs, Southwestern Nigeria, rely exclusively on groundwater for their domestic, industrial and irrigation purposes such that there is the need to identify and subject the recharge and discharge areas for pollution potential integrity assessment. A total of 144 dug wells were selected for the study. Topography, water table levels and hydrochemical trend methods were employed to identify twelve recharge and eighteen discharge areas. Wells in each of the areas were selected and subjected to hydrogeochemical tests to determine their hydrochemical facies types. Results showed that concentrations of cations and anions are in the order of Ca 2+ > Na + > Mg 2+ > K + and HCO 3 − > Cl − > SO 4 2− > NO 3 − , respectively. The dominant hydrochemical facies is Ca-HCO 3 type. These results were integrated with DRASTIC parameters to determine their pollution potentials. The results showed that both the recharge and discharge areas have low pollution potential based on their DRASTIC index values. Water quality indices result of Ore groundwater fall within good to excellent/very good categories with 31.43% and 68.57%, respectively. This study indicated that groundwater sourced from both recharge and discharge areas is safe for domestic and agricultural purposes and that the groundwater is generally less vulnerable to pollution.
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