Assessment of Groundwater quality for drinking water purposes in Sub-Saharan Africa environment: the case study of Ebolowa City Council, Cameroon (Central Africa)

The present study was carried out to evaluate the groundwater quality and its suitability for domestic purposes in the Ebolowa City Council (ECC). The groundwater quality in ECC has been evaluated based on the Water Quality Index (WQI). A total of 15 groundwater samples were collected, and their physical parameters (temperature, pH, EC, TDS, and TSS) and microbial content (fecal coliforms, fecal streptococci, and Total Coliforms) were analyzed using standard methods. The results indicated that the physical characteristics of the water (temperature range from 24°C to 30 °C; pH range from 3.7 to 5.6; EC range from 114 μS/cm to 1,818 μS/cm; TDS range from 54 mg/L to 913 mg/L; TSS range from 0 mg/L to 24 mg/L) were within WHO guidelines for potability except for the temperature, EC, and TSS. The chemical characteristics of groundwater (NO ₃ ^- range from 0 mg/L to 19.8 mg/L; NH ₄ ⁺ range from 0.2 mg/L to 12.9 mg/L) were also within WHO guidelines for potability, except for NH ₄ ⁺ . The fecal Coliforms ranged from 1 to 51 CFU/100 ml, while the fecal streptococci ranged between 0 and 25 CFU/100 ml. The concentration of Total Coliform is between 2.0 and 84.0 CFU/100 ml. The groundwater quality index reveals that ten samples out of fifteen have water unfit for consumption, three are very poor, and one is poor.