A COMPARATIVE ANALYTICAL STUDY OF WATER QUALITY INDEX (WQI) AND SUITABILITY OF SOME RIVERS FOR DOMESTIC USES IN EDO STATE, SOUTHERN NIGERIA

Abstract

The water quality index (WQI) of five rivers in Edo State, Southern Nigeria, was investigated for six months in the wet season from April to September, 2015. The physico-chemical parameters analyzed include, pH, turbidity, total dissolved solid (TDS), conductively, total hardness, magnesium, calcium, sulphate, phosphate and dissolved oxygen. Analysis of water samples from the rivers for the parameters was done at the phycology laboratory in the Department of Plant Biology and Biotechnology, University of Benin, Benin City.WQI values revealed that all the rivers studied were unsuitable for domestic purposes and did not fall within permissible range of pollution. This was attributed to a lot of anthropogenic activities in the surrounding watershed of the study areas as well as flooding associated with the wet season which brought in allocthonous materials into the rivers