THE ASSESSMENT OF WATER POLLUTANTS USING GAMMA DISTRIBUTION IN LAGOS STATE, NIGERIA.

Abstract

Some stake-holders believe that most health and socio-economic problems in      Nigeria are caused by water pollution.

The main objective of this study was to examine water pollution in Lagos metropolitan city using a model called gamma distribution. It is of great importance to give attention to water pollution monitoring in the country, considering the rate at which people are being seriously affected by polluted water in the society.

Methods

Generalized Linear Model (GLM) was used to monitor the concentration of five water pollutants in Lagos State reservoir distribution, the variables involved are  (turbidity, colour, pH, dissolved oxygen and alkalinity). W-test was also used to know if the distribution is normal or not

Results

The average amount of turbidity is 2.6818 mg/l which was higher than the World Health Organisation  standard of less than 1mg/l for treated water.  The pH of water in the reservoir was 7.49 which conforms with the WHO standard,  between 6.5 and 8.5 mg/l. The mean amount of colour in the water was 5.0333 H.U; this is above the WHO standard value of 5.0 HU, while the dissolved oxygen and total alkalinity quantity in the reservoir were 7.5967 mg/l and 38.6833 mg/l respectively, that are in consonance with the WHO standard of portable water quality. In conclusion, It was discovered that all the pollutants were significant except the dissolved oxygen. The results presented  provide a basis for the use of gamma distribution to model water pollutants. The study therefore recommends that, model  used as decision support tools for the management of the Lagos state reservoir, as the attention of government and stake-holders are drawn to keeping water safe.