The surface water quality
of some stagnant water bodies (ponds and lakes—Obi Lake, Usede pond, Oguta
lake, Omuku pond, Ugheghe pond, Karabodone lake, Abua lake, Ikarama lake,
Tenmako lake, and Adiegbe lake) in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria have been
investigated experimentally by analysing the physico-chemical and biological
characteristics of the surface water samples. Results show: pH (5.10 - 7.40), temperature (26.4°C - 31.0°C), turbidity (7.83 - 27.7NTU), electrical conductivity
(13.5 - 34.8 μS/cm), biochemical oxygen demand
(BOD) (1.07 - 19.5 mg/l), chemical
oxygen demand (COD) (1.90 - 21.5 mg/l),
suspended solids (SS) (9.70 - 37.3 mg/l),
dissolved oxygen (DO) (2.7 - 8.7 mg/l), total
dissolved solids (TDS) (33.8 - 187.0 mg/l),
total phosphorus (0.73 - 2.47 mg/l),
ammoniacal nitrogen (AN) (0.018 - 4.70 mg/l)
and total fecal coliform count (TFCC) (nil - 2175 cfu/ml). Results on the water quality
using Malaysian Water Quality Index (WQI) show that Usede pond and Obi Lake
belong to Class II with values that are 75.24 and 76.73 respectively. The WQI
of Oguta lake, Omuku pond, Ugheghe pond, Karabodone lake and Abua lake are
67.46, 65.64, 65.87, 50.77, and 67.01 respectively and belongs to class III. The WQI of Ikarama
lake, Tenmako lake, and Adiegbe lake are 43.38, 37.60, and 41.40, respectively and belongs to class IV and is described as fair.