Impacts of Floriculture Practices on Surface Water Quality In The Case of Lake Dambel, Batu Town, Ethiopia

Abstract

Different pesticides, fertilizers, and mechanizations are used by huge floricultural companies to enhance and expand their production capacity by floriculture companies in Batu and other places. The main purpose of this research is to assess the overall impacts of floriculture practices on surface water quality and environment. Besides this research aims to identify the major sources of pollution load and manage the most source of floriculture chemical characteristics using water quality analysis. The study area of this research was Lake Dambel which is found 160 KMs south of Addis Ababa in the Ethiopian Central Rift Valley. Water samples were collected from purposely selected sampling point randomly from lake Dambel to evaluating physiochemical parameters and compliance to Ethiopian EPA standards and WHO guidelines were made. Furthermore information collected from stakeholders, floriculture companies, and community through interviews. The findings revealed that concentration of turbidity, BOD, COD, TSS. PO4, NO3, SO4 and NH3 will not meet with minimum compliance standard while parameters such as PH, EC, DO, TDS and hardness are will satisfy WHO and Ethiopian EPA standards. This indicates that high impact on environmental farming activities of local community and also becoming less suitable for the maintenance of fisheries and aquatic life.