Assessment of Water Quality and Pollution Load Capacity of the Mmubete Stream in Nigeria

The continuous discharge of waste with high organic content into water bodies causes water pollution. This study evaluates the level of pollution in the Mmubete Stream by focusing on monitoring and evaluating water pollution. The stream is useful for fishing and domestic activities. Water and effluent samples were collected every two months for one year at 12 sampling points covering a total of 1 km stretch of the stream. Seventy-two water samples were collected during the wet and dry seasons covering January, March, May, July, September, and November 2020. Twelve samples were collected in each sampling month and analyzed for twenty parameters: dissolved oxygen, turbidity, total dissolved solids, total suspended solids, biochemical oxygen demand, pH, temperature, electrical conductivity, phosphate, nitrate, copper, lead, iron, manganese, chloride, salinity, nickel, and chemical oxygen demand. The pollution status was evaluated using the modified Water Pollution Index and the National Sanitation Foundation Water Quality Index (NSFWQI) method. The results revealed that Mmubete stream is moderately polluted with water pollution indices for wet and dry seasons as 1.037 and 1.329 respectively and water quality index of 55.87 and 53.22 for dry and wet seasons respectively.