The Assessment of Heavy Metals Concentration in Groundwater: A Case Study of the Wa Municipality

Abstract

Water is a basic need for both domestic and industrial purposes. Regardless of the source of water it should not be contaminated. The purpose of this study is to establish the presence of heavy metals contaminants in groundwater in the Wa Municipality, Ghana. The study is an experiment of six (6) sample units which include: three (3) boreholes, two (2) wells and a sample from the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) reservoir. The findings showed that Nitrite in JH1 (3.65 mg/l) and Iron in BM1 (1.365 mg/l) were beyond the benchmarks while other parameters in the rest of the sample units were within the World Health Organization (WHO) standards. Notwithstanding, the test was not significant ( p = 0.359) at alpha 0.05 two tail test. The study concludes that the groundwater in the Wa Municipality is not much contaminated and is safe for drinking with minimum treatment.