Physicochemical parameters and selected heavy metals assessment of drinking water at the students residences of the Nigerian Premier University

Heavy metals contamination of drinking water is an important health risk factor due to the attendant toxic effect linked to it. We therefore assessed the quality of borehole, tap and well water samples in each of the seven students’ residential areas of University of Ibadan. Physicochemical parameters of the water samples including pH, turbidity, total suspended solids (TSS), total dissolved solids (TDS), as well as concentration of iron (Fe), lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) were determined. The pH ranged from 4.2 to 5.5, 2.3 to 6.1 and 4.6 to 5.9; while turbidity ranged from 1.74 to 8.7, 1.7 to 13.0 and 1.69 to 4.35 NTU for well, tap and borehole water respectively. On the other hand, TDS was in the order of 1.83 to 620, 131 to 590 and 129 to 409 mg/L; and TSS value ranged between 17.9 to 68.8, 21 to 24 and 10.4 to 38.1 mg/L, respectively for well, tap and borehole water samples. Mean Cd concentration for the water samples in all of the residences were found to be within the USEPA maximum concentration limit (MCL) of 0.005 mg/L. However, Fe level exceeded USEPA MCL in some residences while Pb was higher than the permissive level in all of the study areas, up to 6.9 times the MCL for tap water in one of the students’ residences. Findings from this study show that water sources in the residential areas of students of University of Ibadan were contaminated and may constitute health risk long term.