Evaluation of Drinking Water Quality at Water Distribution points in Nigerian Defence Academy Kaduna

Water is essential to life and lack of access to drinking water adversely affects public health in many developing countries like Nigeria. As in most cities in Nigeria, public water supply in Kaduna is erratic and inadequate for local consumers. Moreover, not all water supplies meet the national’s drinking water quality standards. Consequently, many organizations and institutions, public and private relied on underground water for domestic and commercial applications. The quality of underground water is rarely assessed. Therefore, determining reasonable water quality changes and influence of various factors on water quality is important for improving drinking water quality. The objective of this study is to investigate underground water quality in Afaka Military community of the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) Kaduna. The results show that the main influencing factor is the same at all the monitoring points. The main factor is the residence time. The Physico-chemical analysis show that over 90% of water samples were in conformity with Nigerian Standard for Drinking Water Quality and over 50% of the samples were contaminated by coliform. Although underground water is the sole source of water in the NDA Afaka community and may be suitable for commercial application and human consumption is only recommended after treatment to monitor its quality and eliminate coliform risk. Protection of boreholes and water abstraction monitoring are strongly advised.