Ground Water Quality Assessment of the Rural Administrative, Dire Dawa City, Eastern Ethiopia

Meseret Dawit^1-3*, Ararso Nagari⁴ and Habtamu Hailu²

¹IHE-Delft Institute for Water Education, PO Box 3015, Delft 2601 DA, the Netherlands

²Institute of Technology, School of Water Resource and Environmental Engineering, Haramaya University, P.O. Box 138, Dire Dawa, Ethiopia

³Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Water Resources Section, Delft University of Technology, PO Box 5048, Delft 2600 GA, the Netherlands

⁴Central Laboratory, Haramaya University, P.O. Box 138, Dire Dawa, Ethiopia

*Corresponding Author : Meseret Dawit
IHE-Delft Institute for Water Education, P.O. Box 3015, Delft 2601 DA, the Netherlands
Tel: +31-068-7142-205
E-mail: mesedawit@gmail.com

Received: September 04, 2017 Accepted: October 20, 2017 Published: October 26, 2017

Citation: Dawit M, Nagari A, Hailu H (2017) Ground Water Quality Assessment of the Rural Administrative, Dire Dawa City, Eastern Ethiopia. J Hydrogeol Hydrol Eng 6:3. doi: 10.4172/2325-9647.1000160

The physico-chemical composition of groundwater from handdug wells were assessed in rural administrative of Dire Dawa, Eastern Ethiopia. A total of 22 hand-dug well water samples were collected from the well fields. All the samples were analysed for five physicochemical parameters (conductivity, total dissolved solid, total hardness, pH and turbidity) and primary cations and anions (Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, K+ and Cl-) using appropriate procedures and outcome of the analysis were counterchecked with the national and international standards. The ground water physicchemical analysis where undertaken in Central laboratory of Haramaya University and result of the selected sample shows that 95.65% for total hardness and 78.26% for turbidity which indicates higher than ES261:2001 and World Health Organization (WHO) recommended values, respectively. Total dissolved solid and electrical conductivity of all the samples were below the WHO and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) health based guideline values for drinking water, respectively. 95.65% of the pH values of the samples were within the ES261:2001 permissible pH limits (6.5-8.5). Entirely the samples encompass concentration of sodium (7.31 mg/L-74.94mg/L), potassium (0.55 mg/L-3.33 mg/L) and calcium (2.58 mg/L-19.88mg/L) which indicates lower than the WHO maximum admissible limit. The result indicates less pollution and good drinking water treatment practices in the areas, which is safe for human consumption.