Investigation into the suitability of well water near cassava processing areas for drinking and irrigation purposes

•Cassava effluent contains cyanide which is toxic.•Cassava effluent when discharge untreated may pose threat to human health.•Treatment of cassava effluent is required prior to its disposal.•Variations in water quality may be related to the cassava processing operations done near it.•Proximity of well water to cassava processing centres affects water quality for drinking. Water used for domestic and irrigation purposes are sometime contaminated by organic and inorganic pollutants from cassava processing centres. Accordingly, groundwater from ten randomly wells were analyzed for pH, turbidity, total suspended solids (TSS), total dissolved solids (TDS), electrical conductivity (EC), sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), CN−, Na+, K+, Ca++, Mg++ and NO3− ion concentrations and the microbial content to determine the suitability of these waters for drinking and/or irrigation purposes. The qualitative analysis reveals that all the ten sites recorded permissible of limits for TDS (