STRUCTURAL AND HYDROCHEMICAL ASSESSMENT OF SOME ARTESIAN SPRINGS WITHIN SHARE SHEET 202 SOUTHWESTERN NIGERIA

Abstract

The inhabitants of the study area have been faced with scarcity of clean water and sometimes suffer an outbreak of epidemics; the studied artesian springs are their major alternative source of water. Ten artesian springs were assessed using magnetic methods, and hydrochemical analysis. Total magnetic intensity data were processed to obtain the lineament distribution responsible for groundwater flow. Physicochemical parameters analyzed include pH, total hardness, electrical conductivity, and chemical parameters were analyzed. Results showed a magnetic anomaly range of -79.1 - 132.9 nT. There is a series of lineaments, depicting fractures with a high concentration in the northern part. Three of the springs fall on Martins multiple fracture locations, around the high magnetic anomaly, indicating a highly promising location. The range of parameters are as follow; pH: 5.91 – 7.09, electrical conductivity: 30 - 450 μs/cm, total hardness: 20 - 136 mg/L, chloride: 10.01 - 56.0 mg/L. All these are within the World Water Quality Standard tolerable values, with exception of the iron content that is above 1 in all the locations, which falls above the permissible standards of 0.3. This could be associated with the contaminations from open defecations practiced in the area.