Assessment of the Quality of River Bukuruwa as A Drinking Water Resource of Some Farming Communities In The Techiman Municipality

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Date
2011
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Abstract
River Bukuruwa is a prominent river in the Techiman municipality of the Brong Ahafo region of Ghana. It runs through several rural farming communities in the municipality and serves as the main source of drinking water and for other domestic purposes in the communities. An assessment of the quality of the water for drinking purposes was conducted by determining levels of some physico-chemical parameters (pH, colour, total hardness, sulphate, fluoride, phosphate, nitrate, nitrite, conductivity, turbidity), and heavy metals (Fe, Cu, Zn and Pb) as well as enumeration of bacteriological indicators ( E. coli, faecal coliforms and Salmonella) in water samples from the river. Samples were taken from three points along the river at Baamure (upstream point), Kroamoa (midstream point) and Kaniago (downstream point). The results showed that all the investigated physicochemical parameters of water samples from the sampling points were within the minimum permissible limits for drinking water as suggested by WHO except those of pH (5.31 – 6.84), Turbidity(0.00- 6.00 NTU), Nitrite (0.01- 0.7mg/l), Phosphate (0.04 – 4.78mg/l), Conductivity ( 160 - 455µS/cm) and Colour (0.00 – 185 CU). Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometric (AAS) analysis of samples for dissolved trace metals indicated levels of the investigated metals were within WHO permissible limits except for Pb (< 0.01 – 0.05ppm). Bacteriological quality assessment of the water samples also revealed that water samples from all the sampling sites contained indicator bacteria i.e E. coli in the range of ( 2.58 x 101 – 8.7 x 101) and faecal coliforms ( 4.35 x 101 to 3.22 x 102 ) indicating contamination of the water by materials of faecal origin. Salmonella was however not detected in any of the water samples analysed. Water from the Bukuruwa river was therefore found to be unsuitable for drinking purposes.
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A Thesis submitted to the Department of Theoretical and Applied Biology, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science (Environmental Science)
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