WATER PURIFICATION

The production engineering department of the University of Benin has often relied on existing water supply from the faculty sunk borehole. This water has been investigated through physiochemical and biological testing to be below standard required quality for drinking. This has necessitated the development and installation of a water treatment for purification and dispensing facility in the departmental Annex of production engineering for safe sustainable water utilization. A conceptual design of the water treatment and dispensing facility was carried out and it comprises of cylindrical tanks stacked with one of the tank containing coarse aggregates of gravel, rock sand, fine aggregate of river sand, and activated carbon (charcoal) all separated with a filter mesh in the cylindrical tank. The other tank contains the clear water already treated by sedimentation tank containing the aggregated materials Tests and performance evaluation of the developed water treatment facility showed that that the volumes of samples of water taken from the water treatment and dispensing facility had minimal variation from one another. The samples had most volumes around the 50cl mark, while others were around 49cl sometimes successive difference of 0.1cl. The little variation in the volumes is due partly to excess drop in pressure of the reservoir water. The variance is 0.24 which is a mean of the respective deviations of the volumes. This value of the variance is very minimal, showing that the machine was able to discharge given volumes of water with considerable accuracy. The observed range of BODs for the treated water was (3.20mg/L to 3.88mg/L). Electrical conductivity values ranged from 18.00 to 65.00S/cm. It was inferred that there was no significant change in the pH value during the observation period; the observed values were in the range 6.9 to 7.5 for both samples of water before and after treatment. The physio-chemical characteristics of water samples in the study area suggested that there was no harmful
chemical contamination in both samples of water.

In rural areas, water contamination remains a major public health concern, exposingresidents to chemical and microbiological pollutants that can cause severe illnesses. Many households rely on untreated water sources such as wells, boreholes, and rivers, which often contain pathogenic microorganisms and elevated levels of heavy metals exceeding recommended safety limits. This study evaluates boiling as a low-cost, effective domestic water purification method, alongside other household treatment options such as filtration, coagulation, chemical disinfection, and distillation. Water samples were collected from the Obazagbon Community and analyzed in the laboratory to assess physico-chemical and microbiological parameters both before and after treatment. A multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) framework was applied to rate each purification method based on cost, effectiveness, feasibility, simplicity, sustainability, and accessibility. The results demonstrated that boiling significantly reduced microbial contamination, including total coliforms and E. coli, bringing bacterial counts well within the acceptable limits set by WHO and NSDWQ. Specifically, total coliform counts decreased from 149 CFU/ml (Sample A) and 153 CFU/ml (Sample B) to non-detectable levels, and E. coli was completely eliminated from the treated samples. In terms of chemical pollutants, boiling had limited impact. Levels of dissolved metals such as zinc (1.738 mg/L initially reduced to 1.520 mg/L), iron (0.798–0.801 mg/L), cadmium (0.015–0.018 mg/L), and lead (0.063–0.065 mg/L) remained largely unchanged after boiling, highlighting that thermal treatment primarily targets microbial contaminants and cannot remove dissolved chemical pollutants. Physicochemical parameters such as pH remained within safe limits (6.20–6.23 post-treatment). The persistence of metals is attributable to the geological composition of water sources and potential contamination from human activities, including agricultural runoff, poor waste management, and corroded plumbing systems. Overall, the study confirms that boiling is a highly effective method for microbial disinfection