Water Quality Changes Associated with Cassava Production: Case Study of White Volta Bain

Alfred Awotwi; Michael Asare Bediako; Emmanuel Harris; Eric Kwabena Forkuo

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2016.e00149

Water Quality Changes Associated with Cassava Production: Case Study of White Volta Bain

Heliyon. 2016 Aug 30;2(8):e00149. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2016.e00149. eCollection 2016 Aug.

Authors

Alfred Awotwi¹, Michael Asare Bediako², Emmanuel Harris³, Eric Kwabena Forkuo⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Civil Engineering, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana.
² Department of Mathematics and Statistic, Takoradi Polytechnic, Ghana.
³ Department of Mathematics, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana.
⁴ Department of Geomatic Engineering, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana.

Abstract

The outcome reveal that as the land use in the catchment areas change from mixed agricultural to cassava cultivation, the simulated loads and concentrations of nitrogen species from cassava land-use scenario recorded reduction. The resultant concentrations of nitrate and nitrite for both current and future land-use scenarios are all below the daily limit suggested by the WHO, (World Health Organization). For the phosphate concentration, an increase of 4.21% was depicted under cassava land-use scenario. The results show that SWAT is a reliable water quality model, capable of simulating accurate information for developing environmental management plans.

Keywords: Cassava; SWAT; Water quality; White Volta Basin.