Effect of cassava effluents on domestic consumption of ‘shallow well’ water in Owo Local Government Area, Ondo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is a very important staple food in most developing countries. During its processing into cassava starch or ‘gari’, wastewaters effluent are generated and are indiscriminately discharged into the environment or public sewers thereby polluting the soil and invariably discharge into nearby shallow ‘wells’ representing a risk for the environment because of its cyanogen’s content, and the reduced quality of the shallow ‘well water’ made it less suitable for human consumption. The objective of this study is to analyze the contaminated water resources in five selected cassava processing factories for various physical, chemical, and biology parameters. The parameters determined were colour, odour, turbidity, PH, Cl, Ca, NO₃^-, Na, Mg, TDS, K, Cu, Zn, Mn, Fe, etc. The five centers were all predominantly processing cassava into gari with high volume of wastewater and solid wastes being discharge into the environment. Results showed that cassava waste water led to increase in iron, sulphate, potassium, sodium, chromium, cadmium, etc. of the receiving ‘shallow well’ water.

Keywords: Cassava, gari, wastewater, shallow well.