ASSESSMENT OF THE IMPACTS OF INDUSTRIAL EFFLUENTS ON WATER QAULITY IN MUDI RIVER

For more than two centuries, industrialization has propelled our world into an advanced and highly technologized civilization that we know today. Every nation across the world has had series of advancement in industrialization that has reshaped the nation’s economic development. For a long time, the industry has sincerely provided the main resources countries need for a lavishing economic development. with a wide variety of industries, the world has transitioned into different systems of productions with others preferring light industries to heavy industrial productions. However, one thing has always been common; every industry uses a huge amount of chemicals, and raw materials and raw materials to produce. Industrial processes have always produced the essential and the unessential in the form of bi-products. These bi-products in the form of effluents rapidly pollute surfaces including surface water which has been of great concern. The aim of this study was to assess the water quality status of the Mudi river due to industrial effluent. This study was in Makata industrial area and investigation was done by collecting water samples from three stationary points on the Mudi river which was selected by purposive sampling technique. 10 Samples of water were collected and analyzed using standard methods. Sampling was done at three different points; at source, in the middle of makata industrial area and a point after the makata industrial area, and a questionnaire was used to get primary data on the type of wastes industries produce. After analysis of parameters, it was found that; pH at all sites averaged 7.6 and it was within the MBS and WHO ranges. The temperature averaged 22.1 oC which were below MBS and WHO ranges, BOD averaged 80.5 mg/l, TDS averaged 231.3 mg/l and it was within the MBS and WHO standard ranges, DO averaged 3.81 mg/l and it was within the permissible ranges, COD was 165.3, turbidity was 23.1 which was above the permissible ranges of MBS and WHO standards. EC averaged 364.7 and was within the MBS and WHO ranges, Cd was 0.14, Lead was 0.09 and nitrates averaged 0.73. GPS coordinates for each sampling site were recorded and a map was generated in ArcGIS and using proximity analysis tool, a buffer of 30 meters. The findings showed that industries are involved in serious environmental hazards since most of them don’t have Effluent Treatment plants (ETP).

This study was in Makata industrial area and investigation was done by collecting water samples from three stationary points on the Mudi river which was selected by purposive sampling technique. Sampling was done at three different points; at source, in the middle of makata industrial area and a point after the makata industrial area, and a questionnaire was used to get primary data on the type of wastes industries produce. The temperature averaged 22.1 oC which were below MBS and WHO ranges, BOD averaged 80.5 mg/l, TDS averaged 231.3 mg/l and it was within the MBS and WHO standard ranges, DO averaged 3.81 mg/l and it was within the permissible ranges, COD was 165.3, turbidity was 23.1 which was above the permissible ranges of MBS and WHO standards. GPS coordinates for each sampling site were recorded and a map was generated in ArcGIS and using proximity analysis tool, a buffer of 30 meters.

Blantyre City is found within the southern region of Malawi. It is the center for communication, commercial activities, and cooperation in Malawi. The study area is Mudi River near the Makata industrial area. It emanates from inside Blantyre city through the Shire highlands to the valley of the Lower Shire. Recently, there has been a rise in discharging of industrial waste and sewage from broken pipes into the Mudi River and this has brought severe environmental pollution.

Traditional authority: Blantyre City

District: Blantyre

Coordinates: -15.7955, 35.04405