Impact of Water Treatment Processes on Selected Heavy Metals Concentrations in Drinking Water Within Katsina Metropolis

Abstract

The research focused on the impact of water treatment processes on selected heavy metals concentrations in drinking water within Katsina metropolis. Water samples were collected from taps, sachets and Ajiwa dam raw waters and analyzed for Pb, Cu, Fe, Ni, Mn, Zn and Mg using atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS). The solid residues filtered from the treated samples were also analyzed using x-ray fluorescence (XRF) method. The result obtained from the water analysis shows that Cu concentration determined between (0.862-17.232) µg/L with the highest concentration below WHO limit in Ajiwa dam raw water, Pb concentration determined between (0.000-109.63) µg/L with the highest concentration above WHO limit in Ajiwa dam raw water, Ni concentration was detected in almost all the water samples, with the concentration between (0.000-0.72) µg/L, all the concentrations were below WHO limit, Mn concentration determined between (16.554-66.234) µg/L with the highest concentration within WHO limit in Ajiwa dam raw water, Zn concentration determined between (47.286-58.122) µg/L with the highest concentration within WHO limit in tap water, Mg concentration determined between (102.5-213.77) µg/L with the highest concentration within WHO limit in Ajiwa dam raw water. While the amount(%) of isolated element shows that Si(42.51), O(25.39), K(0.24), Ca(1.16), Ti(0.16), Mn(0.04), Fe(1.19), Cu(0.02), Zn(0.009), Ag(0.40), Ba(0.31), Ce(0.03), Nd(0.002), Eu(0.03), Re(0.04), Cl(1.14) and S(0.22) with Silicon with the highest percentage and Neodymium with the least percentage value. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) shows that Pb (p-value 0.000), Cu (p-value 0.000), Fe (p-value 0.000), Ni (p-value 0.490), Mn (p-value 0.007), Zn (p-value 0.000) and Mg (p-value 0.046). This results show that the concentrations of heavy metals analyzed were either removed or drastically reduced to tolerable level or standard limit set by WHO for safe drinking water through series of water treatment processes and this render the water in the areas safe for drinking for now.