International Journal of Aquaculture, 2013, Vol.3, No.15, 79
-
84
http://ija.sophiapublisher.com
79
Research Report Open Access
Assessment of Some Physico-chemical Parameters of River Ogun (Abeokuta,
Ogun State, Southwestern Nigeria) in Comparison With National and
International Standards
Dimowo Benjamin Onozeyi
Department of Aquaculture and Fisheries Management, College of Environmental Resources Management, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun
state, Nigeria
Corresponding author email:
benjamindimowo@yahoo.com;
Authors
International Journal of Aquaculture, 2013, Vol.3, No.15 doi: 10.5376/ija.2013.03.0015
Received: 15 May, 2013
Accepted: 3 Jun., 2013
Published: 15 Jun, 2013
Copyright © 2013
Dimowo. This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article
:
Dimowo B. O., 2013, Assessment of Some Physico-chemical Parameters of River Ogun (Abeokuta, Ogun State, Southwestern Nigeria) in Comparison With
National and International Standards, International Journal of Aquaculture, Vol.3, No.15 79-84 (doi: 10.5376/ija.2013. 03.0015)
Abstract
This study assessed the physico-chemical quality of River Ogun, Abeokuta, Ogun state, Southwestern Nigeria. Four
locations were chosen spatially along the water course to reflect a consideration of all possible human activities that are capable of
changing the quality of river water. The water samples were collected monthly for seven consecutive months (December 2011 – June
2012)
at the four sampling stations. pH, air temperature (
℃
),
water temperature (
℃
),
conductivity (µs/cm) and total dissolved solids
(
mg/L) were conducted
in-situ
with the use of HANNA Combo pH and EC multi meter Hi 98129 and Mercury-in-glass thermometer
while dissolved oxygen (mg/L), nitrate (mg/L), phosphate (mg/L), alkalinity (mg/L) and hardness (mg/L) were determined
ex-situ
using standard methods. Results showed that dissolved oxygen, hydrogen ion concentration, total hardness and nitrate were above the
maximum permissible limit of National Administration for Food, Drugs and Control (NAFDAC), Standard Organization of Nigeria
(
SON), Federal Environmental Protection Agency (FEPA), United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), European
Union (EU) and World Health Organization (WHO) for drinking water during certain months of the study period. Results also
showed that water temperature and conductivity were within the permissible limits of all the standards excluding FEPA. However,
total dissolved solids and alkalinity were within the permissible limits of all the standards. Adejuwon and Adelakun, (2012) also
reported similar findings on Rivers Lala, Yobo and Agodo in Ewekoro local government area of Ogun state, Nigeria. Since most of
the parameters measured were above the maximum permissible limits of the national and international standards, it can be concluded
that the water is unfit for domestic uses, drinking and aquacultural purposes and therefore needs to be treated if it is to be used at all.
The low dissolved oxygen values for the first four months was too low i.e. < 5 mg/L. This is most likely as a result of the amount of
effluents discharged into the river. To prevent mass extinction of aquatic organisms due to anoxic conditions, proper regulations
should be implemented to reduce the organic load the river receives.
Keywords
Physico-chemical; Quality assessment; River Ogun; Water standards; Parameters
Introduction
Water is a vital commodity (NBS, 2012) and its
sources include rivers, streams, lakes, wells, boreholes,
spring etc. Rivers are among the oldest water bodies
in the world (Higler, 2012). In most urban-rural
communities in the developing countries especially the
Sub-Saharan Africa, surface waters (rivers, streams, and
lakes among others) have been the most available
sources of water used for domestic purposes. The
water from these sources is contaminated with
domestic, agricultural, and industrial wastes and likely
to cause water related diseases (Ojekunle, 2000; Ayeni
et al., 2009). The four main sources of aquatic
pollution include industrial wastes, municipal wastes,
agricultural run-off, and accidental spillage (Walsh, 1980).
Nigeria has a surface area of 94 185 000 hectares
which extends from latitude 40°16'N to 130°52'N of
the equator and longitude 20°49'E and 140°37'E (Ita, 1993).
The freshwater resources of Nigeria are within the extensive
river systems, lakes, flood plains and reservoirs and constitute
about 12.4% of its surface area which is 11 678 940 ha
(
Olaosebikan and Aminu, 1998). River Ogun is one of
them with a total area of 22.4 km
2
(2 240
ha) and a
fairly large flow of about 393 m
3
secG
1
during the wet
season (Oketola et al., 2006). Since water is of
necessity to man, animal and plant there is therefore
need to assess its quality so as to proffer guidelines for
its sustainable usage and/or make corrective steps to