Accessing The Quality of Water from Boreholes in The Southern Part of The Ashanti Gold Belt

Daniel Nana Yaw Nyarko
University of Mines and Technology, P.O. Box 237, Tarkwa, Ghana. Email: nynyarko9@gmail.com

Grace Ofori-Sarpong
Professor, University of Mines and Technology, P.O. Box 237, Tarkwa, Ghana. Email: gofori-sarpong@umat.edu.gh

Richard Kwasi Amankwah
Professor, University of Mines and Technology, P.O. Box 237, Tarkwa, Ghana. Email: rkamankwah@umat.edu.gh

ABSTRACT

Water is one of the earth’s most abundant natural resources which supports a lot of domestic and industrial activities. Diverse socio-economic activities however exert a significant impact on the natural fluctuations of the streamflow and the quality of freshwater resources. In mining areas, the impact of water bodies may be due to mining, mine drainage, and processing effluent. This work thus sought to determine the quality of water from boreholes in the southern parts of the Ashanti Gold Belt, the most prominent gold belt in Ghana which hosts more than 50% of gold mining activities and to investigate whether changes in water quality were due to mining activities, geo-chemical or human factors. Water samples from 48 boreholes in the study area were analyzed to determine their physicochemical characteristics in order to evaluate the factors affecting the water quality. Analyses of the samples indicated that most of the water bodies had relatively lower pH values, mostly below the threshold limit. A substantial percentage of the samples contained high levels of manganese, iron, mercury, and chromium. These might be due to geochemical and biochemical oxidation of sulphides. Calcium, copper, lead, zinc, cadmium, and nickel were however in trace quantities.

Keywords: Water Quality, Ashanti Gold Belt, Geochemical Activities, Mining Activities, Borehole