A case report: Incidence of heavy metals in domestic water in Abakaliki Metropolis, Ebonyi State, Nigeria

Scarcity of domestic water in tropical countries has led to the use of well and bore-hole water for household uses by both urban and rural-dwellers. One of the primary goals of the World Health Organization (WHO) and its member states is that all people, whatever their stage of development and their social and economic conditions, should have the right to have access to an adequate supply of safe drinking water. We report here a case of private well-water used for both industrial and domestic uses in an urban town. The water has a very cloudy whitish appearance. We investigated the Ph and presence of some heavy metals of pathological importance. The pH of the water was 7.2 and out of eight heavy metals investigated, seven were found to be in the water at various concentrations in mg/dL: (Iron (Fe)=0.422, Arsenic (As)=00, Lead (Pb)=0.025, Cadmium (Cd)=0.018, Manganese (Mn)=0.067, Copper (Cu)=0.087, Chromium (Cr)=0.008 and Zinc (Zn)=0.067). Therefore, the presence of heavy metals in this water sample underscores the need for a multicenter investigation on the prevalence of heavy metals in both well and bore-hole water used for domestic purposes in Abakaliki metropolis to obviate the occurrence of chronic pathological and end-term diseases associated with consumption of these metals.