Pollution Indicators in River Kaduna, Kaduna State, Nigeria

• Published in: Trends in applied sciences research Vol. 2; no. 4; pp. 304 - 311
• Main Authors: Mahre, MY, Akan, J C, Moses, E A, Ogugbuaja, VO
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.08.2007
• Subjects: Nigeria; European Union
• ISSN: 1819-3579
• DOI: 10.3923/tasr.2007.304.311

The aim of this study is to determine pollutant indicators in River Kaduna, Kaduna State Nigeria. Water and Sediment samples from River Kaduna, Nigeria were collected and analyzed for pH, temperature, total dissolved solid, phosphate, nitrate, sulphate and the organic pollution indicators. These include Dissolved Oxygen (DO), Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) content of the water samples and Total Organic Carbon (TOC) of the sediment samples. The water and sediment samples were also analyzed for the following metal contents, As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Pb and Zn using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (Unicam, Model, SOLAAR 969), while Hg was determined using cold vapour Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer model AA-670. Organic pollutants were analyst using standard procedure. Correlation coefficients of organo-pollutants with each metal determined were used to establish the relationships between the metals and the organic pollution indicators, notably COD, BOD5 and % TOC. The metal levels correlated highly with BOD, COD and %TOC, which indicate the ability of the organo-pollutants to scavenge the metal ions. The levels of metals found in water samples varied from 0.04-0.29 mg L super(-1) for Mn, 0.05-0.32 mg L super(-1) for Cu, 0.10-3.62 mg L super(-1) for As, 0.08-0.10 mg L super(-1) for Cd, 0.22-1.10 mg L super(-1) for Fe, 0.25-0.70 mg L super(-1) for Zn, 1.72-2.50 mg L super(-1) for Hg and 0.50-0.90 mg L super(-1) for Pb. From the results, the concentration of heavy metals in water and sediment samples, BOD and COD were found to be above the recommended permissible limits set by Federal Environmental Protection Agency (FEPA) Nigeria, World Health Organization (WHO)/European Union (EU). It is inevitable that protective measurement must be started very soon as this may have deleterious effect on aquatic ecosystem and the health of the rural dwellers that use the river water directly for domestic purposes without treatment.