Analysis of water quality from different water sources in selected areas of Jinja District

Abstract

Water quality is a major concern in urban areas in many developing countries. Jinja is one of the largest towns in Uganda with a large human population and industries that have the potential to pollute water sources. The quality of water from different sources used by people in this town is not known. In this study, water quality from different water sources in the district in peri-urban and rural areas of the District was determined. Mafubira Sub County that represents a peri-urban area with many urban related activities was selected to represent the peri-urban environment, while Budondo Sub County which is one of the most agricultural product producing area and the region that supplies produces in Jinja town, was selected to represent the rural environment. Water was sampled from different sources from the two environments and subjected to physical- chemical analysis. Physical- chemical water quality parameters for the two environments were compared using a t-test at a critical P value of 0.05. There was a significant difference in conductivity of spring water sampled from a peri urban area from that in rural area (p value (˂ 0.001) (183.3 in the peri urban and 306 in the rural area). A P value of 0.03 implied a significant difference in ph. of spring water from the peri urban and rural area (5.6 in the peri urban to 6.3). A significant difference in temperature of borehole water from the two areas was observed (p value of 0.03 (25.0 in rural and 26.5 peri urban area). There were no significant differences for the rest of the parameters of water quality from the different areas. The analysis emphasizes that the change in water quality is driven by human activities, urbanization and intensive agriculture. The findings therefore demonstrate that more effort should be put in monitoring the quality of water in a reasonable period of time to determine the changes in the quality of water and the source of contamination should be addressed immediately by regulatory authorities