WATER QUALITY ASSESSMENT OF RIVERS IN PADANG USING WATER POLLUTION INDEX AND NSF-WQI METHOD

Abstract

The study was conducted on 4 major rivers in Padang, namely Kandis River, Air Dingin River,
Kuranji River, and Arau River to determine the status of water quality using the Pollution Index (PI) and
NSF-WQI method. These rivers are used as drinking water sources and for the purpose of fisheries,
agriculture and water recreation so that quality needs to be analyzed. The data used is dry season data at 6
sampling stations for each river since years 2015 - 2018 by analyzing 12 parameters, namely total suspended
solids, total dissolved solids, pH, dissolved oxygen, biological oxygen demand, ammonia, nitrates, nitrites,
total Phosphates, Fecal coliform, chemical oxygen demand and temperature. The analysis results showed that
the status of water quality of 4 major rivers in the city of Padang from 2015 until now has been in a lightly
polluted and moderately polluted condition. The pollution index of all rivers is in the range of 2.11-6.06. The
calculation of water quality index shows that almost at all stations, river water quality is in a bad category
with NSF-WQI values in the range of 29.27- 48.75. It is hoped that the results of this research can be used to
improve the quality of the Kandis River, Air Dingin River, Kuranji River, and Arau River so that these rivers
can be utilized in accordance with their purposes.