Arsenic Contamination of Domestic Water from Northern Nigeria

One hundred and twenty samples of drinking water sourced from wells and boreholes from eight local governments that comprise Kaduna north senatorial district of Kaduna state were randomly collected and subjected to Arsenic elucidation using standard laboratory method. The wells have the following results; 0.28, 0.25, 0.25, 0.40, 0.20, 0.30, 0.25 and 0.34 mg/L while the results obtained from the boreholes are 0.04, 0.03, 0.13, 0.14, 0.08, 0.12, 0.09 and 0.12 mg/L both from Ikara, Kubau, Kudan, Lere, Makarfi, Sabongari, Soba and Zaria local governments respectively. Both results were found to be above the Maximum Contamination Level (MCL) of 0.01mg/L set by World Health Organization (WHO) and agreed by Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON) therefore, the sources were found to be contaminated with abnormal concentration of arsenic and consumers are vulnerable to severe health hazards. The high arsenic concentrations could be attributed to both natural and anthropogenic processes such, as erosion, undersurface weathering, toxic chemicals, improper waste and sewage disposal, wastes from industries, agricultural activities and vehicular emissions.