CRITICAL PHYSICOCHEMICAL PARAMETERS INFLUENCING THE VARIABILITY OF THE WATER QUALITY OF KUBANNI RESERVOIR

The water quality data of Kubanni reservoir, Zaria-Nigeria for 7 years (January 2014 to December 2020) was collected and analyzed. Thirteen (13) water quality parameters were analyzed which includes; pH, turbidity, Electrical Conductivity (EC), temperature, Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Dissolved Oxygen (DO), Free Carbon dioxide, Total Alkalinity, Chloride (Cl-), Total Hardness, Total Iron, Nitrate (NO3-) and Manganese (Mn). Results were subjected to Factor Analysis (FA) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) via Minitab 17. FA/PCA extracted 5 Principal Components (PCs) which explain 63.2% of the variation in the water quality. Electrical Conductivity (EC), Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), turbidity, Free Carbon dioxide, Manganese (Mn) and temperature were identified to be the parameters influencing the variability of the reservoir water quality as their absolute factor loading were greater than 0.50