iThe Hounsinou scale: Its development and use to determine the overall quality of groundwater used for drinking and bathing in the municipality of Abomey-Calavi in Benin

Abstract

Study region: Abomey-Calavi is located in the southern part of the Republic of Benin in the department of Atlantic, between latitudes 6° 20’23.4’’ and 6° 42’6.6’’ North and longitudes 2° 14’13.8’’ and 2°25’7.8’’ East. Study focus: The aim of this study is to develop and use a new universal scale to determine the overall quality of water intended for drinking or bathing.Weighted arithmetic sums of the values of the physico-chemical and microbiological parameters and of the World Health Organization (WHO) standards, are used to calculate the chemical water quality index (CWQI) and the microbiological water quality index (MWQI). The marking of water on the Hounsinou scale consists of two alphabetical letters assigned respectively to the CWQI and MWQI of this water.The Hounsinou scale was used to assess the overall water quality of 68 wells in the municipality of Abomey-Calavi in Benin using about twenty physico-chemical parameters and three microbiological parameters measured according to the methods described in the book ''Le Rodier''. New hydrological insights for the region: 8.82 % of the sampled wells had BA, CA and EA rating and were suitable for drinking and bathing. 91.18 % of the sampled wells had CB, BB, DB, EB, AC, AB and GB rating and were not suitable for drinking but were suitable for bathing.This new scale can be used by international institutions to mark and monitor the quality of water resources in all countries in order to assess the efforts made by each country to protect and purify its water resources.This scale is particularly suitable for African countries where water resources are often polluted on the physico-chemical and microbiological levels.

Keywords

• Drinking and bathing water overall quality evaluation
• Multivariate analysis
• Hounsinou scale
• Benin