Hydrogeochemical monitoring of groundwater and surface water quality, East of Mount Cameroon and West of the Penda Mboko River, suitability for drinking and irrigation

The physicochemical characteristics and implications on quality of water sources from volcanic and sedimentary aquifer systems of the study area were evaluated for management and sustainable development. Fifty samples were collected from hand dug wells, boreholes, rivers and springs. Physicochemical parameters were measured insitu and the major ions were analysed. The Total Dissolved Solid (TDS), pH, Electrical conductivity (EC) and Total Hardness (TH) samples were within the permissible limit of WHO standards. Drinking water quality index (DWQI) values exhibited that 29 (58%) of the samples fell in excellent water quality category (Rank I). While 13 (26%) of samples revealed good water quality for drinking purposes (Rank II). Similarly, 3 (6%) (Rank III), 4 (8%) (Rank IV) and 2 (4%) (Rank VI) of the samples fell in fair, poor and unfit category, respectively. The dispersion of physicochemical variables of the groundwater and Drinking Water Quality Index (DWQI) in the study area were depicted. Results from Piper plot revealed that, Ca-Cl type is the dominant hydro-chemical facies. All samples were found in the rock dominance zone in Gibbs plots. The Wilcox diagram associating with sodium percent with total concentration shows that, 26% of the groundwater samples fell in the field of excellent and 74% of the groundwater samples fell in the field of good to permissible for irrigational purposes. No sample fell in the doubtful to unsuitable categories. The results showed that, majority of the groundwater samples were suitable for irrigational purposes based on Residual Sodium Carbonate (RSC) and Soluble Sodium Percentage (SSP). All the samples were found in the excellent category. The Pearson correlation revealed that the majority of the parameters were positively correlated with each other.