EFFECTIVENESS OF EICHHORNIA CRASSIPES IN THE TREATMENT OF AQUACULTURE EFFLUENT FROM A FISH FARM IN BENIN CITY, NIGERIA

O Eribo,A Odali

doi:10.52417/ajhse.v2i2.155

Abstract

Aquaculture production has seen much increase in Nigeria in recent times due to the rise in fish farming occasioned by the availability of water and materials for setting up, the profit turn-over, increase in demand for fish, and the effort to curb the rising youth unemployment rate. However, this massive surge of interest in aquaculture and fish farming is accompanied by the challenge of pollution as the effluent from aquacultural settings gets discharged into nearby water bodies hence the need for remediation. Aquatic plants have been used to remediate polluted water bodies and possess many advantages over other methods. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of Eichhornia crassipes in the clean-up of aquaculture effluent. Wastewater collected from a commercial fish pond in Benin City, Nigeria, were divided into two treatment groups. One group was diluted with an equal volume of distilled water (50%), and the other group consisted of 100% wastewater. Distilled water was used as a control (0%). The samples were treated with Eichhornia crassipes for 14 days, following which samples were collected for physicochemical analysis. The result showed that E. crassipes reduced significantly the pH from 7.44 to 5.98 and 7.28 to 6.10 in the 50% and 100% effluent samples, respectively. The removal efficiency of E. crassipes in the 100% effluent sample was 69% for phosphate, and 94% for nitrate. The study suggests that E. crassipes may be effective in improving the quality of aquaculture wastewater.

Highlights

Over the past three decades, fish output in Nigeria has grown steadily, making the country the largest aquaculture fish producer in sub-Saharan Africa, accounting for 52 percent of the total farmed fish products in the region
Aquaculture production has seen much increase in Nigeria in recent times due to the rise in fish farming occasioned by the availability of water and materials for setting up, the profit turn-over, increase in demand for fish, and the effort to curb the rising youth unemployment rate
This massive surge of interest in aquaculture and fish farming is accompanied by the challenge of pollution as the effluent from aquacultural settings gets discharged into nearby water bodies the need for remediation

Summary

Introduction

Over the past three decades, fish output in Nigeria has grown steadily, making the country the largest aquaculture fish producer in sub-Saharan Africa, accounting for 52 percent of the total farmed fish products in the region. This increase is attributable to several reasons, including a plentiful supply of water, availability of materials for setting-up, favourable meteorological conditions, rising demand for fish, building profitable business ventures, and reducing youth unemployment. Special attention is directed towards phosphorus and nitrogen as the primary pollutants in aquaculture These nutrients at high levels can lead to eutrophication and oxygen depletion due to increased microbial activities in the water body (Bonsdorff, 2021). It is necessary to manage this environmental load as a potential pollution source to maintain the sustainable growth of aquaculture (Osti et al, 2020; Akinbile and Yusoff, 2012 and Amirkolaie, 2011)

Objectives

Methods

Results