PHYSICO-CHEMICAL PARAMETERS AND MICROORGANISMS AS WATER QUALITY INDICATORS OF TELUK BAHANG RESERVOIR AND BATU FERRINGHI TREATMENT PLANT

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Date
2007-12
Authors
AL-GAHWARI, YASSER ABDUL KADER
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
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.
Description
Keywords
PHYSICO-CHEMICAL , MICROORGANISMS
Citation