Groundwater quality index of Upper Athi River Basin in Kenya

Ebenezer Ashun and Kenneth J. Bansah

International Journal of Global Environmental Issues, 2017, vol. 16, issue 4, 217-230

Abstract: Groundwater is a major source of drinking water in communities located within three sub-catchment areas of Upper Athi River Basin in Kenya. Water samples were collected from 36 different shallow wells and boreholes located in these communities and subjected to physicochemical analysis. Water quality parameters analysed included pH, electrical conductivity, turbidity, total dissolved solids, alkalinity, hardness, nitrate, fluoride, phosphate, sulphate, chloride, potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, iron, manganese and zinc. Levels (or concentrations) of these parameters were used to evaluate water quality index (WQI) of the groundwater. WQI values ranged from 115 to 778 with mean WQI of 234. Groundwater in the area is observed to be poor in quality and requires treatment before use. High WQI values were largely attributed to high concentrations of iron, manganese, turbidity, nitrate and chloride.

Keywords: Athi River Basin; water quality; water pollution; groundwater; anthropogenic activities; heavy metals; physicochemical parameters; drinking water; sewage; solid wastes; water quality guidelines; potable water; shallow wells; pit latrines; water quality index; WQI; Kenya. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=86709 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijgenv:v:16:y:2017:i:4:p:217-230

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Global Environmental Issues from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sarah Parker ().