Study of Seasonal Variation of Physicochemical Parameters of River Kaduna, Kaduna State Nigeria

Abstract

Background: The physiochemical parameters of a river tell much about its quality and suitability for both humans and thesurvival of the living biota within it. The discharge of untreated wastewater into the surface water bodies such as streams andrivers results in the pollution of such water environments. We aimed to determine the physicochemical parameters and alsodetermine the seasonal variation of the physicochemical parameters river Kaduna.Methodology: The research was carried out within four areas in Kaduna North, Kaduna state, Nigeria. Selected sampling sitesinclude; Gamji Park, Kabala Costain, Malali and Unguwar Rimi. Monthly sampling of the four sites was carried out from eachsampling site for a period of eight months covering both the dry and the rainy season between 6:00 am and 8:00 am every sampling day. The following parameters were determined using standard laboratory techniques; temperature, pH, turbidity, totaldissolved solids, electrical conductivity, dissolved oxygen, biological oxygen demand, water hardness, nitrate-nitrogen andphosphate-phosphorus. Data was analyzed using simple descriptive statistics to calculate the mean, standard error (SE) andstandard deviation of the parameters.Results: The mean water temperature was 23.6±0.90C with a standard deviation of 2.5, the highest temperature (25.7±0.60C)was recorded in the wet season. Mean pH was 7.9±0.1 with a standard deviation of 0.4, the wet and the dry season had the samemean values of 7.9±0.1. The mean turbidity was 60.3±4.6 with a standard deviation of 12.8, the wet season had the highest value(72.5±2.4 NTU). Mean TDS was 72.1±13.9 with a standard deviation of 38.9 and the highest TDS value of 92.7±22.9 mg/L was recorded in the dry season. The mean values of electrical conductivity, dissolved oxygen and biological oxygen demand was135±27.7µs/cm, 2.6±0.1mg/L and1.3±0.1mg/L respectively whereas water hardness, nitrate-nitrogen and phosphate-phosphorushad means of 143.5±13.0 mg(CaCO3L-1, 0.3±0.0mg/L and 0.1±0.1mg/L respectively.Conclusion: physicochemical parameters were determined to be within the permissible level and wide seasonal variations wereseen among some parameters.