Water Quality Assessment

II. Introduction

According to (Farrel-poe, 2000), water is a transparent, colorless, odorless, tasteless liquid which forms the world’s streams, lakes, oceans and rains, and is the major constituent of the fluids of organisms.

So, we have to ensure that water in all its sources on earth is maintained in its purest form in order to protect the human and environmental health. Water quality is the description of the chemical, physical and biological characteristics of water for a particular use. There are two aspects of water which are the, qualitative and quantitative aspects of water.

(Farrel-poe, 2000) States that, there are three main types of characteristics that have to be analyzed to reflect the quality of water.

The above parameters can be used in analytical methods in water quality assessment.

Now for clarification on the definitions and measurement of these numerous parameters;

PH

(Farrel-poe, 2000) Say that, pH is the measure of the level of activity of hydrogen ions in a solution, resulting in its acidic or basic quality. It I s measured on a logarithmic scale that commonly ranges from about 0 to 14. There are alternative methods of measuring pH, pH indicator solution and litmus paper being very popular examples. The problem with these alternative methods is that they do not give us numerical values of the pH value but instead they display color changes indicative of alkalinity and acidity only.

Electric conductivity

Is the ability of a substance to conduct an electrical current measured in micro Siemens per centimeter. It is simply an indicator of the amount of salts dissolved in the stream and is commonly used to estimate the amount of total dissolved solids.

Dissolved

Thereafter, an aliquot of the sample was poured into a beaker. It was ensured that the depth of the sample was adequate to cover the junction spot of the electrode when immersed into the sample. The electrode was placed in the sample and stirring was done gently by hand swirling. The pH was read and recorded. The procedure was repeated thrice so as to obtain 3 readings per sample and the average was recorded as the samples pH. And lastly, after measurement of samples, the electrodes were rinsed with distilled water and blot dried to remove excess water and the electrodes were stored in the storage solution until use next time.

And as for the measurement of electric conductivity, the meter was turned on and allowed to stand for about 15 minutes while the electrodes were in distilled water. The sample was mixed and poured into 50ml beaker. The electrodes were then rinsed with distilled water, and wiped before dipping into the sample. It was ensured that the junction spot of the electrode was covered by the sample. Ten readings were allowed to stabilize before recording. Three readings per sample were taken and the average of the 3 was reported as the conductivity. Conductivity was reported at 25 degrees