Author(s): Habtamu Getnet, Seyoum Mengistou and Bikila Warkineh

Abstract: This study was conducted in the wetlands of the lower Gilgel Abay River catchment, Ethiopia from 2017 to 2018. The objective of the study was to assess the impacts of human activities on the physicochemical parameters and habitat quality of the wetlands. The water quality parameters (temperature, pH, salinity, TDS, TSS, DO, turbidity, electrical conductivity and nutrients) were examined at six study sites during the wet and dry seasons. The significance of spatial and temporal variability of water quality parameters was evaluated using Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests respectively. The result showed that most of the water quality parameters were significantly different among the sampling sites and between seasons (p< 0.05). The water quality parameter association using principal component analysis (PCA) indicated that the quality of water was influenced by human activities such as agricultural activities and urban effluent around the wetland. The study concluded that the wetlands have been polluted as a result of the human activities within the wetlands and their surrounding areas. It is recommended that the unsustainable human activities around the wetlands should be minimized to reduce further deterioration.

Pages: 130-138  |  748 Views  100 Downloads

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