Water quality assessment of Bulacao River, Cebu, Philippines using fecal and total coliform as indicators
Paper Details
Water quality assessment of Bulacao River, Cebu, Philippines using fecal and total coliform as indicators
Abstract
Coliform bacteria have been used to evaluate the general quality of water. These bacteria can be found in the gut of both warm and cold-blooded organisms. Fecal coliform is a subset of this group. They have been characterized to grow at elevated temperatures and specifically associated with the fecal material of warm-blooded animals. Bulacao River was evaluated using coliforms (total coliform and fecal coliform) as indicators, in relation with physicochemical parameters such as biological oxygen demand (BOD), conductivity, dissolved oxygen (DO), nitrate, ph, phosphate, salinity, temperature, total dissolved solids (TDS) and total suspended solids (TSS). Monthly sampling was conducted from November 2011 to April 2012 in the upstream, midstream and downstream sections of the river. The multiple tube fermentation technique was used for the analysis of coliforms. FC values showed significant spatial variation (p=0.004) which could be ascribed to a lower level of biological pollutants in the upstream however, the difference in values across time was not significant. This implies that the river water was severely polluted at the time of sampling.The coliform bacteria did not show significant correlations (p > 0.05) with the physicochemical factors. A negative relationship was noted between coliforms with pH, DO and nitrate. This could be ascribed to the presence of organic pollutants coming from domestic and industrial discharges.
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