Application of Chemometric Technique in the Assessment of Groundwater Quality in Udi and its Environs, South-eastern Nigeria

This paper examines the factors controlling the hydrochemical facies of groundwater in the shallow marine Plain Sands aquifer in Udi and its environs, in Enugu State, Southeastern Nigeria. Twelve water samples were collected from Udi and its environs and analyzed for twenty-one parameters. The data obtained were subjected to R-mode factor analysis. Factor 1 reflects the signature of pollution factors resulting from seepages into the aquifer from the Ama Brewery and the tide-influenced Ajali River. Factor 2 has high loading values and represents the processes of natural rainwater recharge and water-soil/rock interaction. Factor 3 can be related to the dissolution of sulphides from interstratified peat within the geological formation and from heavy vehicular and brewery activities in Ama town. A broad zone of groundwater contact between water species represented by Factors 1 and 2 is thus created towards the Ajali River. The inference is that ionic concentration in the water decreases away from the banks of the river, an indication that the quality of groundwater improves away from the river. Factor 3 is enhanced in the southeastern area of the town where it is deemed to be caused by the dissolution of sulphur- bearing minerals within the geological formation, and also in the central and northwestern parts of the town, where it could be related to the rain-dissolution of sulphur-bearing compounds from gaseous emission arising from vehicular and brewery activities.