Quality assessment of groundwater sourced from nearby abandoned landfills from Industrial City in Nigeria: Water pollution indices approach

The study assessed the quality of groundwater sourced from nearby abandoned landfills in an industrial city in Nigeria. Nine (9) groundwater samples were collected from three (3) abandoned landfills in Port Harcourt city and analysed for physicochemical and heavy metal parameters. Water pollution indices such as water quality index (WQI), Pollution load index (PLI), heavy metal evaluation index (HEI), and heavy metal pollution index (HPI) were computed for groundwater quality analysis. The concentration of heavy metals analysed are within WHO limit except for Nickel (Ni-0.06 mg/l) across all locations. The WQI computation classified groundwater as “Excellent water (35.12)” to “Good water (60.97)”, PLI (0.142 to 0.17), and HEI (4.893 to 5.133) indicated no pollution, and low pollution level, respectively. The HPI of the groundwater was deemed “Suitable for Drinking (59.11) to “Unsuitable for Drinking” purposes; hence, need for treatment prior to use.