PHYSICO-CHEMICAL PARAMETERS AND MICROORGANISMS AS WATER QUALITY INDICATORS OF TELUK BAHANG RESERVOIR AND BATU FERRINGHI TREATMENT PLANT
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Date
2007-12
Authors
AL-GAHWARI, YASSER ABDUL KADER
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Abstract
The present study was conducted from May 2005 to December 2006 to monitor and
evaluate the water quality status of Teluk Bahang Reservoir and Batu Ferringhi
Treatment Plant. Ten stations were selected for this purpose. The1 51-81h stations were
in the reservoir, the gth was station in pump house station (raw water) and the 1 01h
station was in Batu Ferringhi Treatment Plant (treated water). The water sampling were
carried out for several physico-chemical parameters and measurements of
phytoplankton assemblages and counts, detection of Cryptosporidium parvum oocysts,
Giardia Iamblia cysts, faecal coliforms and E. coli numbers.
A total of 176 phytoplankton species were recorded including 65 unidentified ones. The
abundance of phytoplankton during this study varied from 0.68 x 104 to 6.10 x1 04
cells/m3
. All stations recorded species diversity index of lower than 1. This reflects that
the Teluk Bahang Reservoir is an oligotrophic lake. From this study although there is
an indication of faecal contamination in, the reservoir stations and raw water, however
there was no Cryptosporidium parvum oocysts in the water taken from all the sampling
stations were detected. The enumeration range of Giardia Iamblia cysts in the reservoir
stations was from 0 to 58 cysts/1 00 L and the positive samples results of raw water
ranged from 0 to 38 cysts/1 00 L. The results of E. coli bacteria have been observed to
be in consistent association with faecal coliforms and the first has been found to be an
alternative and a more suitable indicator of faecal contamination in water.
The results of physico-chemical parameters varied during the dry and wet seasons at
all the sampling stations in the reservoir. Lower dissolved oxygen and higher results of
turbidity, pH, conductivity, nutrients and heavy metals were recorded at the 151, 2nd and
3rd stations which faced the stream inflow, forest runoff combined with decomposition of
submerged trees in those areas. The levels of all these physico-chemical parameters
were found to be under the DOE Water Quality Criteria for Malaysia as well as the
acceptable standard values set by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Ministry
Of Health, Malaysia (MOH) for drinking water. These results indicate that the reservoir
water of the proposed study is still in good conditions and quality, suitable for healthy
growth of aquatic organisms and not hazardous to life forms.
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Keywords
PHYSICO-CHEMICAL , MICROORGANISMS