CHAPTER ONE

1.0                               INTRODUCTION  

1.1      BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Hard water is water that has high mineral content; it is the water which will not readily form leather with soap. This is caused by the presence of dissolved solid impurities like calcium and magnesium compound in the water. The compounds include calcium, hydrogen, trioxocarbonate (iv) and magnesium, trioxosulphate (vi). If  there  is a calcium compound. Dissolved in water, soap is precipitated in the form of calcium Octade caonate (which appears as a curd), the lather being insoluble (Adesina H. O. 1982).   

 2 NaSt(ag)    +           CaSO4(ag)            Na2SO4(aq)  +     CaSt2(aq)

Sodium                    Calcium           Sodium            Calcium

Octaelescaonate       Tetraoxo-         tetraoxo           Octadescadnate

                                Sulphate (iv)    sulphate (iv)

(Soluble)                  (Soluble)          (Soluble)          (Soluble)

Until the whole of the calcium compound has been acted upon by the soap. None of the later can forms lather. Thus with hard well water a large amount of soap is used to precipitate and remove the calcium, and only a small extra amount can cause lather. Hard water is generally not harmful to one’s health, but can pose serious problem in industrial setting where water hardness cause break down in boilers, cooling towers and other equipments that handles water. In domestic setting, water hardness causes formation of time scale (fur) in kettles and water heaters. Whenever water hardness is a concern, water softening is commonly used to reduce hard water’s adverse effects.

Hard water can be determined using many methods e.g EDTA, and can be softened using many processes e.g boiling, addition of washing soda permutit process etc. This (hard water) is expressed in the arbitrary units of parts per million (ppm) as calcium carbonate. This means that the degree of hardness of water is generally expressed in parts of calcium carbonate per million parts of water.

A close look at hardness of well water in Enugu metropolis reveals the importance of water, composition of water causes of water hardness. Advantages and disadvantages of water hardness and softening of water hardness. This also reveals the ways used to determine the hardness of water e.g. estimation of water hardness with EDTA. And process used in softening water hardness E.g Stephen lower process and permutite process etc.

Water is an excellent nuclephile. This process is known as hydrolysis, (reaction where water is the product) because water is a nucleophile it is a reactant and a product in many metabolic process which has a propensity to dissociate into hydroxide ions and protons.

The human body consists mostly of water, about 90% water forms on essential part of all body cells and fluid e.g blood. Water forms hydrogen bonding, water is a dipole, ie a molecule with electrical charge distributed asymmetrical about its structure. 

1.2      STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

High human energy loss in washing (as indicated by level of soap and detergent consumption) and frequent damage on cooking utensils by furring and scaling has been on the increase in our society today. These problems arising from the use of well water necessitated this research water to review water hardness in Enugu metropolis.

1.3      AIM/OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The aim of this study is to determine experimentally the contaminants in well water from different Area in Enugu metropolis. The specific objectives are:

i.            To determine the chemical contaminants in well water.

ii.          To compare the level of hardness of well water from different Areas in Enugu metropolis using Asata, Coal camp and New Haven as case study.

1.4      LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

Due to insufficient funding, shortness of time and inadequate of materials/apparatuses in the laboratory of science laboratory technology department, this work is limited to only the chemical contaminants in well water that are capable of causing water hardness as reviewed in the literature. The samples analyzed were limited to only water sample from well water. And the study areas were only on the three selected areas under review.

1.5      SIGNIFICATION OF THE STUDY

This research work on the determination of water hardness from well water will help other researches who are struggling to identify and interpret the causes of hardness in well water. It will also educate the masses on the proper ways of well water analysis and treatment to ensure a clean and safe water usage.

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