Assessment Of The Physico-chemical Parameters Of Selected Rivers In The City Of Addis Ababa

Water pollution is a global problem and has been evident for long period of time. Thernimpact of urbanization on the rivers and streams is increasing with the development ofrnindustry and population size in the city of Addis Ababa. The fast population growth,rnuncontrolled urbanization and industrialization, poor sanitary situation, uncontrolled solidrnand liquid waste disposal, etc. caused series quality degradation of the river waters in therncity. Therefore, assessment of physico-chemical parameters of selected rivers in the city ofrnAddis Ababa was conducted. In this study, physico-chemical parameters; EC, Temperature,rnpH, Na+, NH4rn+, K+ Mg2+, Ca2+, F- , Cl- , NO3rn- , SO4rn2- , PO4rn2- , CO3rn2- , HCO3rn- of 20 waterrnsamples were analyzed using column separation method collected from rivers flowingrnacross residential, agricultural, city centers and industrial sites of the study area; with arnview to assess the vitiations in the pattern of the rivers’ physico-chemical water qualityrncharacteristics with respect to the urban land usage as well as to identify the potentialrnsources of pollution in the respective sites. The results of the physico-chemical parameterrnanalysis revealed that the rivers flowing across residential areas were characterized byrntheir relative highest mean levels of EC, pH, Na+, Mg2+, Ca2+, Cl- with 1222.80 μS/cm, 7.80,rn185.47 mg/l, 28.08 mg/l and 82.04 mg/l respectively; highly elevated NH4rn+, K+, SO4rn2-,rnHCO3rn- levels were the characteristics of the river crossing agricultural site with meanrnconcentrations of 59.11 mg/l, 44.00 mg/l, 34.68 mg/l and 499.71 mg/l respectively; thernrivers flowing across the city centers were also characterized by their highest meanrnconcentrations of F-, and PO4rn2- up to 1.28 mg/l and 4.90 mg/l respectively; NO3rn- was alsornrecorded in the industrial river water samples with highest mean concentration of 25.26rnmg/l relative to the other three sites. The water quality standards set by both WHO and EPArnfor potable and surface waters respectively were surpassed by some of the physico-chemicalrnparameters studied. The level of NH4rn+ was found above both of these standards in all thernriver water samples collected from the four urban dominant activity sites. However, nornCO3rn2- ions were recorded in all the river water samples crossing these sites. The strong pairrnwise correlations, the spatial variations and the overall increasing and decreasing trend ofrnthese physico-chemical water quality parameters showed intimate relations withrnanthropogenic land use activities along the rivers. However, it was a little difficult to locaternand quantify the extent of these pollutants derived from each land use type.rnKey Words: Physico-chemical parameters, Water quality standards, Column separationrnmethod, Urbanization, Anthropogenic activities, Addis Ababa

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