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Indiscriminate disposal of solid waste in dumpsites located within urban areas has proved to be a problem to nearby residents in most developing cities of the world, Umuahia is no exception. Open dumps have environmental safeguards; they can pose major public health threats and environmental effects in urban cities. Therefore, this paper presents the findings of a research carried out in Umuahia municipal area in Abia State to determine the environmental and health impacts of solid waste disposal at Umuahia gate, Upstair line, Ahia Eke, New Timber gate, Government College first gate, etc dumpsites on the surrounding human settlements and markets. Data were collected from nearby dumpsite household residents less than 30 m and far away household residents greater than 30 m through interviews and personal observations were used to collect some of the data. Descriptive statistics involving tables, graphs and figures were used to present and analyze the data. The educational level of respondents of nearby residents (NBR) ranges from 53.00 to 205.00 with total of 398 and far away residents (FAR) are between 53.00 and 110.00 with total of 233.00. The percentage for primary level, high education and not education is 39.60%, 16.80% and 43.60% respectively. The disposal methods used by respondents ranges from 35.00 to 128.00 with percentage between 9.00 to 32.00 for NBR and 23.00 to 85.00 with 10.00% to 36.00% for FAR. Results show that both NBR and FAR suffered from related diseases such as malaria, chest pains, diarrhea and cholera, due to the location of the dumpsite closer to their settlements. Keywords: Environment; Health; Solid Waste Disposal; Dumpsite

The objective of this study has been carried out to assess the ground water quality of Ikwuano region southeastern Nigeria for drinking and irrigational purposes using standard method. Data obtained show that, the pH and levels of electrical conductivity, total hardness, alkalinity, calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, nitrate,orthophosphate, fluorides and SAR ranged from 7.50-8.00, 500-1000μS/cm, 150-400mg/l, 55-110mg/l, 130-250mg/l, 8.50- 37.00mg/l, 5.00-52.00mg/l, 2.00-22.00mg/l, 20.00-120mg/l, 10-100μg/l, 0.40-2.00mg/l and 0.80-13.00meq/l respectively. Percentage Na values range between 5.00-48.00%. Sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) values showed a range of 0.80to13.00meq/L. The maximum concentration of SAR 13.00meq /L was recorded at Umugo and minimum concentration of 0.80meq /L was recorded at Ndoro. The calculated values of SAR integrated with the Electrical Conductivity indicated that the ground water in the study area can be utilized for irrigation purpose without any threat of imposition of any hazard (saline or alkaline hazard) to crop soils. Thus, the analytical data from the study area confirms that ground water present in the study area is suitable for domestic and irrigational purposes. Keywords: Cations, SAR, Percent Sodium, Fluorosis

The sand, silt, shale and clay fractions soils derived from Maastrichtian sediments in the Afikpo Basin, southeastern Nigeria exhibit unusually high cation-exchange capacities. Smectite was identified by X-ray diffraction in all sample fractions and was selectively dissolved by treatment with 1HCl and 0.5 NaOH. Structural formulae, based on chemical analysis of the dissolved material, suggest that the smectite is intermediate in composition between a di- and a trioctahedral mineral and that the octahedral cation occupancy, together with the number of Mg and Fe atoms per unit cell, decreases with decrease in particle size of the soil fraction examined. The mean formula for the smectite in the clay separate is: [(M+= 0.40, Si = 3.33, Al = 0.67), (Al = 1.07, Fe2+= 0.09, Fe3+= 0.41, Mg = 0.82)] O10(OH)2. Similar analysis of smectite present in clay-size material separate from weathered granitic rock taken from the bases of the soilprofiles showed that it had close to the full trioctahedral inherited from the weathered granites.The clay mineralogy of the soils was affected by inherited smectite, probably of hydrothermal of deuteric origin. This mineral is unstable in the soil environment and, although its alteration products are fairly uniform in composition. Keywords: Dissolution, Granitic, Octahedral, Smectite, Soil