Abstract:
River Benue has continued to be a major water source in Makurdi for household and industrial activities, as well as the dredging of sediments for various purposes. The need for continuous monitoring of both the water quality, sediment properties and description are very important. A total of ten samples for both water and sediments were carefully collected and analyzed. The mean values recorded for all tested parameters are as follow; alkalinity (52.1 mg/L), phosphate (324 mg/L), nitrate (76.332 mg/L), chloride (10.396 mg/L), turbidity (177.5 NTU), sulphate (453.5 mg/L), DO (6.05 mg/L), BOD (2.111mg/L), Na (13.280 mg/L), Mg (2.260 mg/L), Fe (0.121 mg/L), Zn (0.754 mg/L), Ca (7.103 mg/L), Pb (BDL mg/L), Cr (0.012 mg/L), Cd (0.030 mg/L), TDS (22.0 ppm), Electrical Conductivity (96.0 μS\cm), Temperature (27.4 o C), THB (31.500 CFU/ml x10 3 ) , TCC (11.750 CFU/ml x10 3 ) , TEC (8.000 CFU/ml x10 3 )
, SSC (7.375 CFU/ml x10 3 ). The water quality results when compared to World Health Organization (WHO) and Nigeria Standard for Drinking Water Quality (NSDWQ) standards were higher than the permissible limit, with a Water Quality Index (WQI) of 116.99. The engineering properties determined were sediment characteristics and distribution, the average coefficient of curvature (Cc) was 1.22 and coefficient of uniformity (Cu) was 2.77. 81% of sediment were sand, 18% was gravel and the less than 1% was fine, which is responsible for
looseness of the sediments. The classification shows that the samples were very fine skewed and very platykurtic. The specific gravity of the sediment ranged between 2.54 and 2.62, the bulk densities of the sediment were above 1.80 g/cm 3 , porosity ranged between 38% and 47%, the permeability values can be regarded as a pervious sediment because the recorded values greater than10 -4 cm\sec. The mineralogical analysis shows that the major component of the sediment from River Benue is quartz, muscovite, microcline, zircon and hornblende. The sediment can be used for beach nourishment, for land reclamation with the addition of fine grains, as well as for visoil fertility enrichment because of the presence of high potassium from the mineralogical
studies. Overall, it was observed that the water quality is unfit for drinking, the sediment has single provenance
