Assessment of Seasonal Variations in Water Quality of River Tordzie, Ghana

River Tordzie is one of the least studied rivers for its water quality and, hence was analysed for seasonal variations in water quality using nineteen physicochemical and metal ion parameters. Water samples were collected from seven stations in triplicates along the banks of the river during the wet and the dry seasons. The water quality index (WQI) was used to estimate water quality, while the student's t-test (two-tailed) assuming equal variance was used to establish any statistically significant difference between the water quality for the dry and wet seasons. Among the physicochemical and metal ions parameters analysed, except for three parameters (SO42-, NO3- and COD) representing 15.79% which did not show statistically significant differences between the wet and dry seasons, statistically significant differences were observed among the rest of the 16 parameters representing 84.21%. Eight parameters (Alkalinity, Total hardness (TH), pH, PO43-, TDS, EC, BOD, and DO) showed the highest peak during the dry season representing 42%, while, the other parameters (colour, turbidity, SO42-, nitrate, COD, TSS, Cl-, and NH4-H) and all the metal ions showed the highest peak during the wet season representing 68%. The evaluated water quality indices for the two seasons were 718.37 and 612.06 for the dry and wet seasons respectively, putting the water quality in the two seasons into the unfit for drinking water category. As such, proper chemical treatment should be given to the water from River Tordzie before those living along the banks of the river use it for their domestic activities.
Keywords River Tordzie, Wet season, Dry season, Water quality index, Variation, Physicochemical param