Abstract:
River Tordzie is one of the poorly studied rivers in Ghana in terms of its water quality.
There is little data on the quality of water from this river. The purpose of the study was
to assess the water quality of River Tordzie which runs through some communities in
the Volta Region. Samples were taken in March (dry season) and July (wet season) in
seven communities along the river in the study area. Sixteen physicochemical
parameters and three heavy metals were analysed. Lead and cadmium were determined
using Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer using an air-acetylene oxidizing
flame. Total hardness, pH, turbidity, chloride and phosphate were determined by EDTA
titration, a PC 700 Eutech multi-parameter bench top meter, a potable metalyser HM
1000 Trace2O, argentometric titration and ascorbic acid spectrophotometric method
respectively. From the analysis, it was found that the pH, Total hardness, sulphate,
phosphate, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids, chloride, and nitrate were
within the permissible limit of Bureau of Indian surface water quality standard as per
IS: 2296. Heavy metals such as cadmium, lead, and iron were also within the standard
during the dry season but the concentrations of cadmium and lead were above the
standard limits during the wet season. Water quality index (WQI) analysis was
conducted and the result for the dry season was found to be 92.19 and for the wet
season to be 1227.84. The results showed that, the water from this river cannot be used
for domestic purposes without treatment. When Nemerow’s Pollution Index (NPI) was
conducted, it was found that colour, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), dissolved
oxygen (DO), cadmium, and lead were the main parameters causing the quality of the
river to decline. The result from the t-test analysis showed that there was no statistically
significant difference between the observed values during the dry season and wet
season (p = 0.815 > 0.05). The quality of water from river Tordzie was therefore
affected by changes in the seasons.
Description:
A thesis in the Department of Chemistry Education
Faculty of Science Education, submitted to the School of
Graduate Studies in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the award of the degree of
Master of Philosophy
(Chemistry Education)
in the University of Education, Winneba
