Pollution assessment and estimation of the percentages of toxic elements to be removed to make polluted drinking water safe: a case from Nigeria

Abstract

This paper aimed to assess the water quality and estimate the percentages of potentially toxic elements that would be removed to make water resources in Ojoto and its environs (Nigeria) safe for drinking. Standard procedures were followed in physicochemical analyses. Novel integrated-weight water quality index revealed that only 4 out of 28 water stations were suitable. Heavy metal toxicity load estimated that 92%, 48%, 89%, 79% and 98% of Fe, Zn, Ni, Cr and Pb, respectively, are required to be removed from the waters to reduce pollution. Hierarchical agglomerative clustering showed the spatiotemporal water quality classes in the study area.

Keywords:

• Drinking water
• heavy metal toxicity load
• water quality assessment
• integrated-weight water quality index
• potentially toxic elements

Disclosure statement

The authors hereby declare that there are no known competing interests.