Impact of Waste Dump on the Sediment and Surface Water Quality of Otamiri River, Nigeria

Some Physico-Chemical Parameters of surface water and heavy metal level in sediments of Otamiri River at dump site along Aba road were evaluated and correlated with that of control unit upstream. The annual means values showed that acidity(mg/l), alkalinity(mg/l), pH, Electrical conductivity(Scm^-1), BOD5(mg/l), COD(mg/l), DO(mg/l), TSS(mg/l), Total Hardness(mg/l CaCO3) are 2.00, 3.20, 6.45, 24.00, 11.30, 46.50,8.45, 80.85,4.05, 2.20,6.31,21.00,15.63, 41.72, 12.85, 4.53 and 0.035 respectively for the dumpsite, while 4.05, 2.20, 6.31, 21.00, 15.63, 41.72, 12.85, 41.05, 9.06 and 0.035 respectively for the control. The annual values for the heavy metal (mg/kg) indicates that the dumpsite’s sediments are a lower than that of control. This shows that organic matter present at benthic region must have adsorbed most of the heavy metals at the surface of benthic region downstream.