Identification of waterbody status in Nigeria using predictive index assessment tools: a case study of Eme River, Umuahi
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Identification of waterbody status in Nigeria using predictive index assessment tools: a case study of Eme River, Umuahia, Nigeria E. D. Anyanwu1 · S. N. Umeham2 Received: 22 January 2020 / Accepted: 6 March 2020 © Islamic Azad University (IAU) 2020
Abstract The water quality of a Nigerian river was studied between December 2017 and November 2018 in six stations in relation to anthropogenic impacts and suitability to support aquatic biodiversity using water quality indices. The indices used were Water Quality Index (WQI) and Nemerow’s Pollution Index (NPI). Thirteen parameters were evaluated using standard methods and compared with national standard. Some parameters like turbidity, pH, dissolved oxygen, biochemical oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand and phosphate did not meet the standard especially in station 4. The indices (WQI and NPI) in the six stations effectively captured the effect of the anthropogenic activities in the river and showed that the water quality was suitable to sustain biodiversity. It can be concluded that human activities including sand mining has not negatively impacted the water quality. However, the activities need to be monitored and regulated. Keywords Limits · Nemerow’s pollution index · Sand mining · Water quality · Water quality index
Introduction The most important life nourishing systems of nature is freshwater ecosystem, in which rivers are important; playing a major role in the terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems (Kamboj et al. 2017). The water quality characteristics of water bodies affect the species composition, abundance, productivity and physiological conditions of aquatic organisms (Anyanwu et al. 2013; Xiong et al. 2016). As rivers are important aquatic ecosystems supporting diverse life forms, a high level of pressure from interacting stressors including chemical pollution has driven the extinction rates of freshwater organisms much higher than those for terrestrial species (Dudgeon et al. 2006). There is significant decrease of water quality of aquatic systems in watersheds as a result of anthropogenic activities (May et al. 2006). Frequent disturbance derived from increasing anthropogenic activities has made freshwater ecosystems among the most threatened habitats globally (Malmqvist and Rundle 2002; Zhai et al. * E. D. Anyanwu [email protected] 1
Department of Zoology and Environmental Biology, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Nigeria
Department of Animal and Environmental Biology, Abia State University, Uturu, Nigeria
2
2014; Hillel et al. 2015). Consequently, it is pertinent to prevent and control river pollution and to have reliable data on the quality of water for effective management (Wang et al. 2007). Rapid interpretation of river water quality is necessary since river is a dynamic ecosystem, influenced by various activities in the river bank (Effendi 2016). According to Popović et al. (2016), quantifying water quality changes has some inherent problems. Though some specific indicators exist that can represent
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