TITTLE

Water quality characteristics

INTRODUCTION
Water quality often declines as rivers flow through regions where land and water use are intense
and pollution from agriculture, large towns and cities, industry and recreation areas increases.
When water quality is poor, it affects not only aquatic life but the surrounding ecosystem as well
Poor water quality also has a negative impact on public health, the health of our ecosystems,
recreational activities, farming, cultural and spiritual needs, and other activities.

Water quality determines the condition or health of waterways, such as our rivers, wetlands and
coastal waters. Water quality testing is an important part of environmental monitoring. There are
many parameter properties that affect the water quality. The parameters that affect the quality of
water in the environment. These properties can be physical, chemical or biological factors.
Physical properties of water quality include temperature and turbidity. Chemical characteristics
involve parameters such as pH and dissolved oxygen. Biological indicators of water quality
include algae and phytoplankton. These parameters are relevant not only to surface water studies
of the ocean, lakes and rivers, but to groundwater and industrial processes as well.

WATER QUALITY CHARACTERISTICS

1.0 CHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS
1.1 BIOCHEMICAL OXYGEN DEMAND
Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) is a measure of the dissolved oxygen consumed by
microorganisms during the oxidation of reduced substances in waters and wastewaters. It
is often used ambiguously in relation to Carbonaceous Oxygen Demand (CBOD) which is
the oxygen consumed during the oxidation of carbonaceous compounds to carbon dioxide
(CO2) and other oxidized end product. BOD is actually the sum of CBOD and NBOD
where NBOD is the Nitrogenous Oxygen Demand which is the oxygen consumed during
the oxidation of nitrogenous compounds (mainly NH3) to nitrates with nitrites being an
unstable intermediate. The BOD value is most commonly expressed in milligrams of
oxygen consumed per litre of sample over five days incubation at 20 °C and it is often used
 as a robust surrogate of the degree of organic pollution of water (Virendra et al., 2013).
BOD can be used to gauge the effectiveness of wastewater treatment plants (Penn et al.,
2013).

1.2 CHEMICAL OXYGEN DEMAND

COD is defined as the number of oxygen equivalents required to oxidize organic materials
in water. Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) also a measurement of the oxygen depletion
capacity of a water sample contaminated with organic waste matter. It is similar in function
to Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) because they both measure the amount of organic
compounds in water and they are the most commonly used parameters for the
characterization of wastewaters (Abdalla and Hamman, 2014). COD also used to estimate
BOD because a strong correlation exists between them, however COD is a much faster and
more accurate test but it is less specific, since it measures everything that can be chemically
oxidized, rather than just levels of biologically active organic matter (Sawyer et al., 2003)

1.3 AMMONIACAL NITROGEN

Ammoniacal nitrogen (NH3-N), is a measure for the amount of ammonia, a
toxic pollutant often found in landfill leachate and in waste products, such as sewage,
liquid manure and other liquid organic waste products. It can also be used as a measure of
the health of water in natural bodies such as rivers or lakes, or in manmade water reservoirs.
Ammonia levels in excess of the recommended limits may harm aquatic life. Although the
ammonia molecule is a nutrient required for life, excess ammonia may accumulate in the
organism and cause alteration of metabolism or increases in body pH. It is an indicator of
pollution from the excessive usage of ammonia rich fertilisers. Ammonia nitrogen also is
a sum of NH4 and NH3 (Singh, 2000).

1.4 TOTAL SOLID

TS are the total of all solids in a water sample. Total solids is a measurement that includes
the combination of total dissolved solids and total suspended solids. They include the total
suspended solids, total dissolved solids, and volatile solids. Total suspended solids is an
indication of the amount of erosion that took place nearby or upstream. TSS can include a
wide variety of material, such as silt, decaying plant and animal matter, industrial wastes,
and sewage. High concentrations of suspended solids can cause many problems for stream
 health and aquatic life. This parameter would be the most significant measurement as it
would depict the effective and compliance of control measures like riparian reserve along
the waterways. Next, total dissolved solid defined as a combined content of all inorganic
and organic substances contained in a liquid which are present in a molecular, ionized or
micro-granular (colloidal sol) suspended form. The total concentration of dissolved
substances or minerals in natural waters is a useful parameter in describing the chemical
density as a fitness factor, and as a general measure of edaphic relationships that contribute
to productivity within the body of water. Total dissolved solids (TDS) are determined by
simply evaporating a filtered quantity of water at low temperatures. Lastly volatile solid
represent the fraction of total solids that are lost on ignition at a higher temperature than
that used to determine the total solid (EPA 2001). Total volatile solid is defined as a ignition
temperature. TVS content does not always represent the organic content of a sample
because some organic material may be lost at the drying temperature and some inorganic
material such as carbonates and chlorides may be lost at the ignition temperature (EPA,
2001).

Total solid it is a measurement that is often used in the water treatment industry. A higher
total solids level indicates that there is a high level of solid material in a water sample.
Depending on the evaluation criteria, a high level of total solids could cause the sample to
be considered contaminated.

2.0 BIOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS

2.1 FUNGI
Fungi are natural inhabitants of soil and water and some species may behave as pathogens
or opportunistic pathogens in man. Fungi are aerobic multicellular, nonphotosynthetic,
heterotrophic. Most are saprophytes, obtaining food from dead organic matter, principle
micro-organism along with bacteria that decomposes carbon and without fungi, the carbon
cycle would cease and organic matter would build up. Fungi also ideal conditions are high
moisture and low pH. Fungi is a enteric viruses which cannot multiply in the environment,
but they can survive longer in water than most intestinal bacteria and are more infectious
and resistant to disinfection than most other microorganisms. Fungal pathogens as agents
of variety of infections are part of this trend and are found much more frequently as the
 cause of infections in immunocompromised patients. Example such as Norwalk, Hepatitis
A.

2.2 VIRUS
Virus is smaller than bacteria. Smallest known biological structure to contain all the genetic
information necessary for reproduction. Next, virus cannot live by themselves which do
not have ability to synthesize new compounds to require a host. It is obligate parasitic
particles consisting of DNA. Virus also host specific, makes enumeration difficult which
is very difficult to control medically. Some viruses will live as long as 41 days in water or
wastewater at 20°C and for 6 days in a normal river. Viruses need host to live. Example
such as Enteric cytopathogenic human orphan; aseptic meningitis, epidemic exanthem,
infantile diarrhea.

2.3 MULTICELLULAR ORGANISMS

Multicellular organisms are organisms that consist of more than one cell, in contrast to
unicellular organisms. Multicellular organisms are made up of more than one cell. As such,
they are different from unicellular (single celled) organisms that only consist of a single
cell. Like unicellular organisms, there are a wide range of plant and animal multicellular
organisms in existence. Compared to unicellular organisms, multicellular are also more
complex given that they are made up of different types of specialized cells that carry out
different functions. A majority of animal species, plants (on land) and fungi are
multicellular organisms. These range from fungi human beings. Example such as Giardia
Lamblia and Cryptosporidium parvum are protozoan parasites, infecting the digestive tract
of man and other warm blooded animals.

2.4 BACTERIA
Bacteria are single-celled microorganisms with prokaryotic cells, which are single cells
that do not have organelles or a true nucleus and are less complex than eukaryotic cells.
Bacteria with a capital B refers to the domain Bacteria, one of the three domains of life.
The other two domains of life are Archaea, members of which are also single-celled
organisms with prokaryotic cells, and Eukaryota. Bacteria are extremely numerous, and
the total biomass of bacteria on Earth is more than all plants and animals combined.
Bacteria are single-celled organisms. They lack organelles such as chloroplasts and
 mitochondria, and they do not have the true nucleus found in eukaryotic cells. Instead, their
DNA, a double strand that is continuous and circular, is located in a nucleoid. The nucleoid
is an irregularly shaped region that does not have a nuclear membrane. Bacteria also have
a cell membrane and a cell wall that is often made of peptidoglycan. Together,
the cell membrane and cell wall are referred to as the cell envelope. Many bacteria need a
cell wall in order to survive. Example such as E. Coli, and Enterococcus bacteria are the
"indicator" organisms generally measured to assess microbiological quality of water.

CONCLUSION
In conclusion chemical and biological parameters characteristics is important to make sure the
quality of water. Chemical characteristics parameter include biological oxygen demand, chemical
oxygen demand, total solid and ammonical nitrogen. For biological parameter characteristics
include fungi, virus, multicellular organism and bacteria.

REFERENCES
Abdalla, K.Z. and Hamman, G. (2014). Correlation between Biochemical Oxygen Demand and

Chemical Oxygen demand for various wastewater treatment Plants in Egypt to obtain the
Biodegradability Indices. International Journal of Sciences: Basic and Applied Research
(IJSBAR)13(1): 42 – 48

Sawyer, C.N., McCarty, R.L., Parkin, G.F. (2003). Chemistry for Environmental Engineering and

Science (5th edition). New York: McGraw

Sigh, S., N. (2000). Trace Gas Emissions and Plants. India : Kluwer Academic Publisher

U.S. EPA (2001). Methods for Collection, Storage and Manipulation of Sediments for Chemical

and Toxicological Analyses: Technical Manual. EPA 823-B-01-002. U.S. Environmental

Protection Agency, Office of Water, Washington, D.C.

Virendra, S., Salahuddin, K., and Manish, V. (2013). Preimpoundmental Studies on Water Quality

of Narmada River India. International Journal of Environmental Sciences 2(6): 31-38

Bioligical Dictionary. Retrieved from https://biologydictionary.net/bacteria/

 UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA

ASSIGNMENT WATER
EVT 525
WATER RESOURCE TECHNOLOGY

TITTLE: CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL PARAMETER

CHARACTERISTICS (WATER QUALITY
CHARACTERISTICS)

NAME: NURUL NURIANI BINTI KHAIRULAMAR

NO. MATRIX: 2017355853
GROUP: AS2293A
LECTURER’S NAME: DR. NIK AZLIN BINTI NIK ARIFFIN