Assessment of Tudun Kuka Dam Water Quality for Human Consumption in Maiganga Coal Mining Area, Akko Local Government Area, Gombe State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study assessed the effect of Maiganga Coal mining activities on the water Quality in Tudun Kuka Dam for human consumption. The physical and chemical properties of water sampled were analyzed for heavy metals. The results were compared with World Health Organization (WHO, 2015) standard. Data were generated from both primary and secondary sources. The water sample were analyzed and interpreted using WHO, 2015 safety standard as control value. The volume of the entire Dam water was not measured. The Dam water was purposively sampled at a point where the villagers mostly used to fetch water from. The water sample was fed into 2liters plastic containers and labelled so as to have enough water sample for laboratory analysis covered by the study. The results shows that the water sampled is alkaline (pH 8.18) Total Dissolved Solids (TDS-72mg/l) is within the permissible limit (500 mg/l) and Total Suspended Solids (TSS-118mg/l) exceed the permissible safety limit (10mg/l). These indicates that the water sample has high Suspended Solids and various metals which are likely to affect human health. Normal Chemical Oxygen Demanded is 10-20mg/l. Biological Oxygen Demanded is 6.00mg/l and Dissolved Oxygen is 4.00mg/l, all these are above the permissible safety limit as analyzed in the Dam. This indicates the presence of pollutants in the water sample analyzed. Aluminum (Al), Copper (Cu), Iron Fe, Zinc (Zn) and Manganese were detected but in small harmful quantities. The results of the study have shown that the water is not acidic for consumption. The results further reveal high concentration of TSS, COD, BOD and DO, which indicates the presence of dissolved metals which can affect the water quality with a tendency to cause different diseases in man like nausea, diarrhea and even spinal cord infection.