Assessment Of Drinking Water Quality And Pollution Profiles Along Awetu Stream (jimma

Water shortages, weak public utilities, and poor management of availablernwater resources force the public to rely on poor quality water sources andrnsupply practices that are often polluted, having significant health risks,rnwelfare and financial losses. Furthermore, the quality of potable water andrnthe threat of waterborne diseases are critical public health issues in manyrndeveloping countries. Water quality assessments on downstream pollutionrnprofiles of rives and streams has been undertaken on different rivers andrnstreams in Ethiopia. Nevertheless, majority of these studies concentrate onrnrivers and streams that are found near the capital, mostly in the Awash riverrnbasin. This, therefore, indicates that studies on the Omo-Ghibe river basin arernlacking. Awetu stream which is part of the Omo-Ghibe basin is the primaryrnsource of water for a range of activities. On the other hand, deterioration ofrnthe quality of Awetu stream as a result of discharge of municipal wastes andrnurban runoff has been indicated. Shallow hand-dug wells that are used forrndrinking are large in number in Jimma town where, majority of them arernequipped with pulley. A comprehensive investigation of the quality ofrndrinking water sources particularly on hand-dug wells and tap water, andrnpollution profiles of Awetu stream encompassing physicochemical andrnbacteriological parameters is lacking. Therefore, this study aims to assess thernquality of Awetu stream, hand-dug wells used for drinking purposes and taprnwater supplied to Jimma town based on physicochemical andrnbacteriological parameters and figure out if there are environmental andrnhealth risk associated with the use of these water sources. The resultrnindicated that higher levels of BOD (4.1±1.5--17.5±3.2 mg/l) ;COD (16.7±5.65--rn53.7±38.8 mg/l) ;TSS 91.7±107.3--506.7±640 mg/l; Nitrate-Nitrogen (NO3-N) andrnAmmonia-Nitrogen (NH3-N) .12±2.01--18.0±8.74, 0.65±0.41-- 4.46±1.97 andrn3.64±2.40-27.6±13.2 mg/l, respectively are responsible for the deterioration ofrnthe stream quality. Coliform bacteria, particularly, Fecal Coliform, arernpresent in the stream at levels indicative of fecal pollution. They also exceedrnall the guidelines for human use whether for personal contact, drinking, orrnwashing of food. The lack of municipal wastewater treatment plant in therntown has caused the stream to suffer from a serious pollution. With regard tornhand-dug wells, PH in all of the wells was relatively low beyond the WHOrnguideline range (5.0±0.4-4.9±0.3-6.6±0.16.5±0.1); In all of the wells except W2rnthe level of nitrate (62.8±5150.35±14.6 to 230.7±11 235.5±10.6 mg/l) is beyondrnthe WHO (max 50mg/l NO3rn-) and other country’s drinking water standardrnguidelines (max 50 mg/l NO3rn-); Coliform bacteria ranging from 67±47 76±62rnfor W2 to 1247±1087 MPN/100ml for W9 and were found to occur in the hand-rndug wells exceeding the WHO drinking water guideline. This thereforernindicates that there is a serious health risk from the use of these waterrnsources. However, the quality of tap water at the source; before and afterrntreatment is of good quality in line with the WHO drinking water guideline.

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