Water Quality Assessment of Kampani River, Plateau State, Nigeria

The paper assessed the physico-chemical and heavy metal levels of surface water collected from Kampani River, Wase Local Government Area of Plateau State. The analysis was done using standard procedures. The mean annual concentrations of the metals studied ranged from 0.32- 0.45mg/l for Cr; 0.11- 0.27mg/l for Cu; 0.33 – 0.45mg/l for Co; 0.05 – 0.91mg/l for Cd; 14.96 – 20.68mg/l for Fe; 1.01 – 5.30mg/l for Mn; 0.09 – 0.22mg/l for Ni; 0.80 – 1.68mg/l for Pb and 1.15–1.63mg/l for Zn. The Physico-chemical analysis revealed the following range of values 7.45 – 7.49 for pH; 27.86 – 103 µs/cm for Electrical conductivity; 18.82 – 20.76 NTU for turbidity; Total hardness,109.51 – 291.68mg/l; Alkalinity, 0.08 – 28.33mg/l; Chloride, 11.32 – 43.43mg/l and TDS,74.21 – 152.59mg/l. Most of the metals analysed showed significantly higher concentrations which follow the order Fe>Zn>Mn>Cd>Pb>Co>Cr>Cu>Ni during the dry season and Fe> Mn> Pb >Zn>Cr>Co>Cu>Ni >Cd in the wet season. Comparing with WHO , NIS and SON standards guidelines, the results revealed that the consumption of water from River Kampani could be disastrous to human health