Background: Water plays a significant role in maintaining the human health and welfare. Increase in industrialization and various human activities have recently increased the pollution of surface water and ground water (WHO, 1997). The aim of this study was to carry out the analysis of the specified heavy metals present in the crude oil contaminated water samples obtained from six different crude oil contaminated sites of three communities of Ikpokpo, Atanba and Okpele-ama of Gbaramatu Kingdom along the Escravos River in Warri South West L.G.A of Delta State, Nigeria, and to determine their health effects on the affected communities aforesaid. Standard analytical method (Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer – (AAS) Analyst 400 model) was used to carry out the analysis. Table 1, presents the WHO maximum permissible limits of some specified heavy metals in normal drinking water sources. Also, the results of the two samples analysed were all being presented from table 2 to 5 as being indicated in a tabular form. Upon comparison, between the mean values of the crude oil contaminated samples (table 5), with the WHO permissible values (table 1) and normal water samples analysed (table 3), It was found out that the crude oil contaminated water samples values were all above the WHO maximum permissible limits of heavy metals concentrations in normal drinking water sources (WHO, 2003, 2005 and 2011).Therefore, there is need for remediation of the crude oil contaminated water samples to the level of WHO standard guidelines.
Keywords: Contamination, WHO, Water Quality, crude oil spills, heavy metals analysis
