THE BACTERIOLOGICAL AND PHYSICOCHEMICAL QUALITIES OF KORU-AMA BONNY (MARINE) AND PENEE (FRESH) RIVERS IN COASTAL AREAS OF RIVERS STATE

*Ollor Amba Ollor, Vivian Nkemkanma Agi, Constancy Prisca Aleru, Samuel Douglas Abbey, Nwabueze Ebere and Edna Chinyere Elenwo

ABSTRACT

Water is an important and essential substance used globally and should remain pristine at all times in any place. The essence of this work was to determine and compare the quality of fresh and marine waters used by the people living in the coastal areas of Rivers State. Two Rivers, Koru-ama Bonny (marine) and Penee (fresh) were identified and studied. The sampling sites were located by the Global Positioning Systems (GPS) which are located in Koru-ama Bonny River (N04o28/36.5//) and (E007o06/22.1//) and Penee River (N04o45ʹ36.6ʺ) and (E007o09ʹ77.4ʺ). Surface water samples were collected in clean sterile containers for physicochemical, some heavy metals and bacteriological analyses. The pH, temperature, conductivity and turbidity were determined in situ using Horiba Water Checker (Model 11 – 10) instrument. Nitrate, phosphate, chloride, alkalinity and others, including heavy metals and bacteriological analyses were carried out using standard procedures. The results of the physicochemical parameters of the marine water are as follow: pH 7.33±0.18, temperature 29.1±0.99OC, electrical conductivity 32050.0±70.7μS/cm, total dissolved solids 22,935.0±657.6mg/l, salinity 19.1±0.140/00, chloride 10639.3±655.7mg/l, hardness 3,833.0±1.14mg/l, sulphate 443.8±6.57mg/l and dissolved oxygen 7.50±0.28mg/l. However, the fresh water values for pH, temperature, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids, salinity, chloride, hardness, sulphate and dissolved oxygen were 7.60±0.28, 27.1±0.42OC, 29.0±0.14μS/cm, 21.0±1.4mg/l, 0.9±0.080/00, 1.7±0.14mg/l, 4.5±0.14mg/l, 3.6±0.00mg/l and 2.0±0.01mg/l respectively. The heavy metals results showed mercury was 0.079±0.00mg/l for marine water and fresh water 0.261±0.001mg/l while arsenic was 16.385±0.001mg/l for fresh water. The total heterotrophic bacteria count, total coliform count and Most Probable Number (MPN) for marine water were 2.0 x102cfu/ml, 1.10x102cfu/ml and 0.90x102cfu/ml and the fresh water result were also 0.79x102cfu/ml, 0.90x102cfu/ml and 0.70x102cfu/ml respectively while the identified bacteria common to both the fresh and marine waters were Pseudomonas spp, Bacillus spp, Escherichia coli as Vibrio spp was found along with others in marine water. It can be inferred that the water sample are not pristine and they could be of health risk to the people and could sometimes result in epidemics in the coastal areas.

Keywords: Water, Fresh, Marine, Bacteriological, Physicochemical, Water Quality.