Abstract
Composite water samples taken from Owena Multi-purpose Dam in six sampling campaigns covering the wet and dry seasons were analyzed for physico-chemical and microbial characteristics using standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater jointly published by the American Public Health Association, American Water Works Association and Water Pollution Control Federation. Results showed significant (p < 0.05) seasonal variations in most measured parameters with few showing significant spatial variation. The characteristics of the water from the dam lake revealed an acceptable quality for most measured parameters with low chemical pollutants burden when compared with drinking water standards and water quality for aquaculture. However, high values of turbidity, colour, iron, manganese and microbial load were recorded compared with drinking water standards, which call for proper treatment of the water before distribution for public consumption.
Highlights
The old Owena Water Supply Scheme, completed as far back as 1960 has a design capacity to supply 10 million litres of water to some towns and villages in the present Ondo and Ekiti States of Nigeria
The student’s t-test conducted on the results revealed high level of significant difference (p < 0.05) between wet and dry seasons’ values for all parameters except turbidity and calcium. This observation is typical of the characteristics of dams within the geographical region [12] and most surface waters as reported by many authors [5,8,9,13,14], Spatial variation was, low in most of the water quality parameters as shown in the calculated values of coefficient of variation, implying that the water samples were collected basically from sources of similar physicochemical characteristics, which are more influenced by the lithology of the basin
High turbidity and colour values compared with drinking water standards were recorded
Summary
The old Owena Water Supply Scheme, completed as far back as 1960 has a design capacity to supply 10 million litres of water to some towns and villages in the present Ondo and Ekiti States of Nigeria. Most countries of the world have water resources management policies aimed at achieving sustainable use of their water resources by protecting and enhancing their quality, while maintaining economic and social development. Achieving this objective requires that the needs and wants of the community for each water resource are defined and that these resources are protected from degradation. These community needs generally called the environmental values (or beneficial uses) of the JEP water body [6], include water for drinking, swimming, fishing, recreation, agricultural food production, and/or ecosystem protection; the basis for which the Owena Multipurpose Dam was conceived and constructed. The extent to which a particular water source could serve these community’ needs depend on the quality of the water
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