Quality Assessment of Aba River Using Heavy Metal Pollution Index

Abstract

Increased industrial expansion and population in Aba has lead to huge generation of wastes and their disposal has resulted to air, land and water pollution. This study examined the degree of heavy metal contamination of Aba River in southeastern Nigeria. Heavy metals such as Fe, Zn, Cu, Mn, Cr, Cd, As and Pb were analyzed using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer and the result compared with the Nigerian Standard for Drinking Water Quality. The pollution load index between the heavy metals in the river produced the following output: Fe > Zn > Cu > Mn > Ni > Cr > Pb > As > Cd. The metals exhibited a good linear correlation coefficient and the application of factor analysis on the data revealed three sources of pollution arising from the various human activities taking place along the river channel. The findings indicate that the water needs some degree of treatment before consumption and it also needs to be protected from the perils of contamination.