Abstract:
Water covers about 70% of Earth’s surface. Safe drinking water is a basic need for all humans.
World Health Organization reports that 80% of the diseases in the world are waterborne.
Industrialization, discharge of domestic waste, radioactive waste, toxic chemicals, population
growth, excessive use of pesticides, fertilizers and leakage from water tanks are the major
sources of water pollution. The accelerated use of agricultural chemicals, indiscriminate disposal
of industrial effluents and the population growth over the past few decades has had an adverse
impact on the quality of surface waters in many areas of the world. All these have resulted in an
increase in contaminants polluting waterways. Aquatic macroinvertebrates has therefore served
as bioindicators. These biological indicators are species used to monitor the health of an
environment or ecosystem. They are any biological species or group of species whose function,
population, or status can be used to determine ecosystem or environmental integrity. The aim of
this research work is to identify the extent at which macroinvertebrates can be used to detect the
level of pollution of water from a stream associated with considerable human activities. The
objectives of this study is to measure the physico-chemical parameters in the stream and also to
determine the level of heavy metals and the abundance of macroinvertebrates in Aahoo stream.
The result from this research shows that there are contaminants present in the Aahoo stream
through the discharge of domestic and agricultural waste. The resulting effect can be disastrous
to the aquatic organisms and cancerous to humans around Aahoo stream Water pollution,
therefore, is of great consequence because both terrestrial and aquatic life may be affected; it
may cause disease due to the presence of some hazardous substances, may distort the water
community, add odours and significantly hinder economic activities.
