Water Quality Index for Assessment of Abattoir Effluent on Woji River, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Abstract

The physicochemical properties of Woji River were analyzed at different points (1, 2 and 3) in which ten important properties which include Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chloride, Total Suspended Solids (TSS), Dissolved Oxygen (DO), Hardness, Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Iron (Fe), Nitrate (NO3), pH, and Lead (Pb) were taken for the calculation of Water Quality Index (WQI) which is a technique used to examine the effect of abattoir effluent on Woji River within Port Harcourt metropolis. Each of the ten water quality factors was assigned a weighting factor which shows its relevance in which the highest weightage is given to Lead (Pb), then Iron (Fe). The total of weighting factors is 0.993864. The WQI values for the Woji River were 30403 for point 1, 19236 for point 2 and 14234 for point 3 and it was rated unsuitable for human uses. The assessment of the overall quality of Woji River using WQI has low permissible WHO standard along with the concentrations of Hardness, BOD, Chloride, Pb and Fe that exceeded the permissible standard. The results showed that slaughter effluent has a negative effect on the quality of Woji River by making the stream’s ability not to host life. Recommendations were made, such as educating people around the area about the implication of pollution; siting an abattoir and treating wastewater from the abattoir before disposal.