Principal Component Analysis of the Chemical Radicals in the Water from Hand-Dug Wells in Akure Metropolis, South West Nigeria

This study assessed the chemical radicals water in hand dug wells in Akure metropolis, Ondo State Southwest Nigeria. Forty hand dug wells were sampled within the metropolis, using standard laboratory techniques, the water samples were analyzed for chemical radical parameters such as; calcium, magnesium, sodium potassium, iron, lead, silicate, phosphate, sulphate, bicarbonate, chloride, nitrite and nitrates. The resulting data were subjected to Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Cluster Analysis. The first principal components only accounts for about 34% of the variation in the data and four components were needed to account for 67% of the variation. Also worthy of note is the fact that these first four components have eigenvalues substantially larger than the last nine components. A biplot of the first few principal components revealed the data structure as falling into three groups. To visualize this cluster group, the hierarchical cluster approach was adopted using the average linkage. The results of the analysis have helped in the optimization of the parameters that led to the levels of the radicals in the samples.