Assessment Of Downstream Pollution Profiles Of Awassa Textile Factory Effluent Along Tikur Wuha River Using Physico-chemical And Macroinvertebrate Indicators

The purpose of this study was to investigate pollution profiles of Awassa Textile Factoryrnwastewater and examine its ecological impact in terms of the effect on aquatic biotarnusing macroinvertebrates as bioindicator downstream along Tikur Wuha River. The waterrnquality parameters used to investigate pollution profiles of the wastewater were COD,rnBOD5, total nitrogen, phosphorus. sulphide, total dissolved solids, conductivity, totalrnsuspended solids and heavy metals (Chromium(Cr), Nickel (Ni), Lead (Pb,Cadmiumrn(Cd), Zinc (Zn), Copper (Cu) and Iron (Fe). The result showed that the pollution profilesrnfor the downstream Tikur Wuha River were significant with COD and BOD5rnconcentrations ranging from 590±128.4–2062.4±483.1mg/l, respectively. Total nitrogenrnand phosphorus varied from 21.2±1.6–42.2±1.8 and 1.79±0.5–3.98±1.0mg/l, espectively.rnSulphide, total dissolved solids, conductivity; total suspended solids also varied fromrn0.67±0.2–1.6±0.5, 608.3±140.5–1987.2±92 and 1067±249.1–548.3±163.9 mg/l,rnrespectively. Whereas the concentration of total suspended solids,total Chromium(Cr),rnNickel (Ni), Lead (Pb, Cadmium (Cd), Zinc (Zn), Copper (Cu) and Iron (Fe) were in thernrange of (254.7±1.8–1245±18.3mg/l), ( 0.03- 0.15±0.04 mg/l), ( 0.02 - 0.18±0.06 mg/l) ,rn(0.02 - 0.10±0.03 mg/l), (0.02 - 0.04 mg/l), (0.03- 0.08±0.01 mg/l) ,( 0.02 - 0.07 mg/l),rn(0.52±0.1 - 1.45±0.02 mg/l) , respectively. Similar emphasis was placed on determiningrnthe effects of the textile wastewater on aquatic biota (macroinvertebrates). A total ofrn18,651 macroinvertebrate individuals belonging to 34 families were collected from 6 sitesrnalong Tikur Wuha River. Benthic metric results indicated that the most impacted sitesrn(S1 and S2) ranked last on all positive metrics, while the reference site (S6) ranked first onrnall positive twelve metrics. The progression of biological impairment among sites asrncompared to the reference site (S1) was the lower reach sites (Site 5, 4 and 3) obtainedrnhighly impaired scores on four metrics (%EPT, %Ephem., %Trico. and % Pleco.); andrnslightly impaired on other four metrics (%DT, SDI, HFBI and BMI); and the upper sitesrn(S1 and 2) were assessed as severely impaired on all metrics. The most impacted sites (S1rnand S2) registered high values of negative indices and low values of positive indicesrnindicating poorest water quality than the reference site.

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