Assessment of Water Quality along River Asa, Ilorin, Nigeria

River Asa, an important tributary to the Niger River, the main stream of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the longest river that flows across Ilorin City in western Nigeria, was chosen as a case study in order to investigate the variations in the quality of its water at different locations. This was necessitated by the peoples' consideration of water from rivers and streams as substitute to the reigning incidence of water shortage in the city. Four different locations were purposively chosen to reflect a consideration of all possible human activities that are capable of changing the quality of river water. Composite water samples were taken for laboratory analysis of certain parameters. The choice of these parameters were guided firstly, by the international standards for drinking water as presented by WHO (1977), EEC (1975) and Rodda (1976); and secondly, by the need to consider the aesthetic, toxicity and microbiological requirements of drinking water following Mohammed (1989). The observed results of the laboratory analysis were then presented, described and compared descriptively with the international standards for drinking water (WHO, 1977). It was observed that variation exists in the quality of the sampled waters and that none of these samples meet the World Standards for drinking water. Thus, the paper calls for public enlightenment in order to create public awareness with respect to the need not to rely on water from these sources for drinking purpose. The relevant water agency was implored to treat water from the dam to conform to the World Standards and improve in the context of the supply of adequate drinkable water to the people.