Water Quality Assessment by Pollution Indices in Eastern Obolo Coastline Communities of Nigeria

The investigation of water quality is crucial for the protection of health. This study assesses water quality, using pollution indices, within the coastline communities of southern Nigeria by examining a total of 48 samples of domestic water sources from 12 communities in Eastern Obolo for one year from November, 2017 to October, 2018. GPS was used to identify the sampling points and Geostatistical technique was used to visualize the risky communities. Water pollution status of the coastline communities was determined using three pollution indices: Water Quality Index (WQI), Heavy metal Evaluation Index (HEI) and Heavy metal Pollution Index (HPI). Result revealed a 66.7% acidification of the sampled domestic water sources with seasonal variation. High Turbidity in 66.67% of surface water during the wet season. Domestic water sources were generally low in Dissolved Oxygen with the highest mean value of 2.13 ± 0.45mg/L for surface water. The mean concentration of Lead (Pb), Iron (Fe) and Cadmium (Cd) were as high as 0.240.06 mg/L, 1. 400.46 mg/L and 0.680.08mg/L, respectively in some water sample. Greater than 50% of the sampled water was not safe for drinking based on water quality index. Water quality was poorer in the wet season than the dry season. Quality rating based on HEI showed that 91.7% of the sampled water had low heavy metal pollution and 8.3% was moderately polluted with heavy metals in both seasons. The total heavy metal pollution index revealed highly polluted domestic water sources. The spatial pollution distribution maps showed a more polluted urban and semi- urban communities than the remote rural communities, demonstrating the influence of urbanization and industrialization on water pollution.