Abstract

One major socio-economic problem today is coping with increasing demand for water for domestic and other uses In most cases people depend on alternative means of supply such as rainwater harvesting collection from rivers streams and any available water body channelling runoff to ponds and other storage facilities and purchase from water vendors These methods often compromise water quality This study evaluated the spatial variation of rainwater quality in Benin City using the core of the city Forestry Ring-Road intermediate zone Upper Mission Road Airport Road rural-urban fringe Ikpoba-Hill Ogba and NIFOR control in Benin City in the months of March and July 2016 The objectives of the study are to examine the spatial variation of the physical Colour Electrical Conductivity Salinity Total Suspended Solids chemical pH Total Dissolved Solid Chemical Oxygen Demand Nitrate Sulphate Magnesium biological Total Coliform Count and heavy metal Iron Copper Zinc Manganese properties of rainwater examine the seasonal variation of rainwater quality compare rainwater quality with the World Health Organization WHO Quality Standard 2012 for Domestic Water and examine the implications of rainwater quality in the study area Descriptive Statistics Analysis of Variance and Student t-test were employed in the analysis of the data collected for this study The results showed that rainwater quality in study locations was more acidic in the month of July which represents the typical wet or rainy season of the year compared to the month of March