Assessment of Groundwater Physical and Microbial Quality in Konduga Local Government Area of Borno State, Nigeria

The study assessed groundwater physical and microbial quality in Konduga Local Government Area of Borno State, Nigeria. Twenty (20) samples from different groundwater sources in three of the four districts of Konduga Local Government Area were collected and analysed using standard techniques. The findings indicated that there is a presence of physical and microbial concentrations at various levels of NSDWQ standards. The result found average concentration of turbidity (5.87 NTU), Coliform Counts (2.6 mpn/100ml), E. coli (1.1 cfu/100ml) above NSDWQ permissible limits of drinking water quality. Additionally, the water quality data compares across the three districts using various parameters, indicates that all the three districts had turbidity values above the limit of 5 NTU, with Auno (5.63 ± 2.92), Konduga (5.83 ± 3.07), and Dalori (6.23 ± 1.39), but no significant difference was found (p-value 0.911). Coliform levels also exceeded the allowable limit of 1mpn/100ml, with Auno (2.50 ± 2.39), Konduga (2.33 ± 1.86), and Dalori (3.00 ± 2.60), showing no significant differences (p-value 0.873). E. coli concentrations were highest in Auno at 875 ± 1.13, far exceeding the limit of 0 cfu/100ml, while Konduga and Dalori districts had much lower levels, but again, no significant differences (p-value 0.592). The presence of Coliform bacteria and E. coli in the sampled groundwater sources indicated bacterial contamination from faecal matter and other harmful microorganisms. This might have a connection with the depth of the hand pumps and hand-dug wells, which are more susceptible to contamination from surface water and improper waste disposal habits, which greatly affect the water quality. Implementing suitable filtration techniques, including reverse osmosis, activated carbon filters or ion exchange systems to mitigate groundwater contamination, is one of the recommendations put forward in this study