Assessment of chemical quality of groundwater over some rock types in Ashanti Region, Ghana

2013

English

Groundwater is an important source of water supply and plays a crucial development in any kind of development. However excessive amount of some inorganic constituents in groundwater could pose significant health risk to consumers. The quality and distribution of some inorganic constituents were assessed in major productive rocks in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. To do this, samples were obtained from 37 boreholes located over 17 districts in the region and appropriate international certified WHO standard protocols for water quality testing methods were used to analyse them. The level of concentration of sulphates, nitrites, nitrates, chlorides and fluorides determined were within the permissible WHO guideline values. However results indicate high levels for iron in some aquifers with values slightly above the WHO permissible level of 0.3mg/l. Contamination due to iron could therefore pose a major problem in the region as elevated levels could affect quality of water. As part of groundwater development schemes in Ashanti Region it is recommended that removal of iron be considered so as to conform to acceptable level for domestic supplies.

Bernard, O.; Tagbor, T. A.; Seth, O. N.