ABSTRACT

Pollution of water and soil is a major environmental problem and day by day, this problem is increasing with the rapid growth of industrialization and urbanization in all parts of the world. Most conventional remediation approaches do not provide acceptable solution to pollution problem. Hence this study was carried out to evaluate the effect of brewery effluent on Pistia stratiotes and Eichhornia crassipes plant. The results of the physicochemical analysis of the brewery effluent and Ikpoba river shows that EC ranged from 27 – 32 µS/cm, pH (6.5 – 9.2 ), TDS (12 – 35 mg/l), Temp. (26.0 – 28.0 ^oC), TSS (0.528 – 40 mg/l), TS (0.56 – 7.1 mg/l), turbidity (13.50 – 49.57 mg/l), Ca (6.92 – 31.28), Mg (0.78 – 1.17 mg/l), alkalinity (6.10 – 15.25 mg/l), NH₄ (1.61 – 6.41 mg/l), SO₄^2- (0.51 – 10.13), PO₄^3- (0.02 – 15.05), NO₃^- (2.09 – 7.09 mg/l) and Cl^- (2.-09 – 7.09 mg/l). Heavy metal analysis also show that Fe³ ranged from (18.41 – 55.88 mg/l), Pb (4.86 – 13.36 mg/l), Zn (3.94 – 15.07 mg/l), Cu (0.52 – 5.01 mg/l), Cr (0.05 – 3.24 mg/l) and Mn (0.02 – 1.03 mg/l). The effect of brewery effluent on the morphological parameters of Pistia stratiotes and Eichhornia crassipes revealed that the number of leaves observed in P. stratiotes ranged from 5 – 12 from day 0 – 15 at varied concentration (0 – 100 v/v)  compare to E. crassipes which ranged from 3 – 10. Significant increase in chlorophyll content, (20 – 27 CCI), root length (17 – 25 cm) and plant biomass (33 – 82 g) of E. crassipes was also observed compared to the chlorophyll content of P. stratiotes (6 – 25 CCI), root length (13 – 17 cm) and plant biomass (13 – 20 g) of P. stratiotes respectively. The test plants performed well in 100% brewery wastewater. As such it is an efficient, economical and ecological alternative to accelerate the removal of agro-industrial wastewater pollutants present in wastewater. Hence further research is needed to investigate the role of P. stratiotes and E. crassipes in detail with special reference to any effect on other living forms and its potential to remove toxic chemicals present in our environment.