Assessment of Quality of Water Resource from Great Ruaha River and Allied Water Sources Serving Domestic Purposes at Pawaga Division

Abstract

This study intended to assess water quality from Ruaha River and allied water sources serving domestic purpose in Pawaga division. By using standard methods triplicate samples from sixteen (16) different sites were collected and analyzed for physicochemical parameters and bacteriological values. The conductivity of analysed samples ranged between 1 – 286 µS/cm which is lower than the TBS threshold 2,500 µS/cm. The TDS ranges between 107 – 2235.8 mg/L during the wet season and 49.0 – 2,616.3 mg/L during the dry season. The level of Na+ ranges between 0.2 – 104.4 mg/L during rainy season and 0.8 -119 mg/L during dry season. Nitrate levels ranges between 0.4 – 101.4 mg/L during rainy season and 0.3 – 107.9 mg/L during dry season. This may be contamination from fertilizers, municipal wastewaters, feedlots, septic systems in river water. Sulphate concentration ranges between 0.3 – 93.0 mg/L during rainy season and 3.7 – 98.9 during dry season. Sulphate can also be produced by bacterial or oxidizing action as in the oxidation of organo-sulphur compounds and the more common sinks are pyrite, gypsum, and sulphate reduction. The study concluded that, water supplied by Pawaga water supply must be treated to eliminate microbial, physical and chemical pollution prior to domestic water supplies. It recommended that Government should strengthen water intervention management and carry out intervention measures to improve water quality and reduce water pollution’s impact on human health. The control of water pollution can be done by increasing monitoring of wastewater disposal into rivers, carrying out an inventory and identifying water pollution sources.