Abstract

The present study aims at examining some of the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of this river and the heavy metal content to determine its water quality and its suitability for both domestic and industrial use using the Weighted Arithmetic Water Quality Index method (WAWQI). Water quality assessment of the Ahoada River was carried out by collecting water samples from three different points on the river course and analyzed for some physicochemical parameters, microbial load and heavy metals content. The parameters analyzed include temperature, pH, turbidity and electrical conductivity. Others were Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Dissolved Oxygen (DO), Total Solid (TS), Total Dissolved Solid (TDS) and bacterial load. These parameters were analyzed using recommended standard methods. The cations and anions analyzed were Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, Chloride (Cl^-), Nitrate (NO₃^-) and Phosphate (PO₄^3-). The heavy metals analysis was done using AAS. These were Chromium (Cr), Copper (Cu), Cobolt (Co), Nickel (Ni), Lead (Pb), Iron (Fe), Cadmium (Cd), Zinc (Zn) and Manganese (Mn). The sampling for this study was in 3 months (July, August and September). The analysis showed that Fe, Cd, Zn Cr, Cu, Co, Ni and Mn were not detected except Pb whose mean concentration value was 0.13 mg/L. Most of the parameters measured were within acceptable limits of World Health Organization (WHO) standard. The microbial pollution, DO and electrical conductivity were higher than the recommended level set by WHO. Assessment of this river was done using the Weighted Arithmetic Water Quality Index (WA WQI) method. The WQI value obtained was 97.02. This rates the river as having very poor water quality thus unsuitable for drinking and domestic purpose.

Keywords:

Ahoada river, heavy metals, microbial analysis, physicochemical parameters, water quality index, weighted arithmetic,

References

Competing interests

The authors have no competing interests.

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The authors have no competing interests.