Physicochemical properties of water quality of Imeh, Edegelem and Chokocho communities located along Otamiri-oche River in Etche Ethnic Nationality of Rivers State, Nigeria

摘要

Some physiochemical properties of water quality of Otamiri-oche River whichruns through Imeh, Edegelem and Chokocho Communities in Etche ethnic nationality of RiversState, Nigeria were investigated. Samples were collected in triplicate from the three differentlocations along the river in both rainy and dry seasons. Each sampling points is located 500maway from the successive one, and the samples were taken from the open river at the zoneextending beyond the shoreline. Samples were stored in ice packs and immediately taken to thelaboratory to investigate some selected physico-chemical characteristics. Also, bacteriologicalstudy was carried out on the samples. The laboratory results of the selected physico-chemicalparameters when compared with the world health organization (WHO) standard showed that allthe selected physico-chemical parameters were within the world health organization (WHO)permissible in both rainy and dry season except pH. For rainy season, the pH values were5.00±0.00, 5.40 ±0.40, and 5.40± 0.30 for Imeh, Edegelem and Chokocho respectively. For thedry season, the pH values were 5.83± 0.01, 5.56±0.01, 5.90±0.01 for Imeh, Edegelem andChokocho respectively. Also magnesium hardness exceeded the World Health Organization(WHO) permissible limit in rainy season only. The results of bacteriological study showed thatall the sampling locations contained high numbers of coliform bacteria in both rainy and dryseasons. The number of coliform bacteria during rainy season was 25.00±0.00, 25.00±0.00, and35.00±0.00 for Imeh, Edegelem and Chokocho respectively. Those of dry season were93.00±3.55, 56.66±4.49, and 35.60±4.17 for Imeh, Edegelem and Chokocho respectively. Thedifference between the rainy and dry season was tested statistically using the t-test. The resultsof the statistical analyses showed a significant difference (p