Water Quality Index and Status of Minichinda Stream, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

The water quality index and status of Minichinda stream Port Harcourt was studied between July 2006 and June 2007. Minichinda stream is one major stream that receives wastes from anthropogenic activities in the area. Water samples were collected from four strategic locations and analyzed following the standard method for the parameters which include temperature, pH, conductivity, alkalinity, Dissolved Oxygen (DO), Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), Phosphate (PO4), Sulphate (SO3) and Nitrate (NO3). The values obtained from this study were subjected to statistical analysis using SPSS software. The calculation of water quality index (WQI) made use of the mean values of the nine (9) parameter chosen using the standards recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), Bureau of Indian Standards (BIU) and Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) for drinking water quality. The water quality indexes for the water body spatially were 29.732, 37.944, 79.342 and 28.127 for stations 1-4 respectively. The values of the WQI showed that sampling stations 1, 2 and 4 were free of impurities unlike that of station 3 which is considered to be of very poor quality. It was concluded that WQI is used as a tool for comparing the quality of water of different sources and locations. It was also recommended that water from the sampling station 3 should be adequately monitored and possibly treated before use to avoid health related issues