Effect of Water Hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) Infestation on Selected Surface Water Quality Parameters

Background: Infestation of aquatic weeds indicates surface water pollution, thus questioning its potential use. The present study was aimed to investigate the effect of water hyacinth infestation in surface water in terms of surface cover and morphological characteristics. Methods: Surface water samples at a depth of less than 30 cm were collected from water hyacinth covered and uncovered sites and analyzed for water quality parameters such pH, TSS, DO, turbidity and EC. Water hyacinth plants were also collected using a 1 m2 quadrate to investigate the relationship between water quality and weed morphological characters. Result: The water quality was comparatively low at water hyacinth covered sites than uncovered sites for pH (7.09-7.89), TSS (0.5-1.86), DO (4.15-6.08), turbidity (5.57-25.9) and EC (91-748). Amongst, TSS (p less than 0.05) only showed a significant difference. Hence, morphological characters, leaf length and width were significantly and positively (0.956) correlated to each other. Further turbidity and EC respectively showed positive and negative correlation to leaf length (r=0.219, r=-0.290) and leaf width (r=0.194, r=-0.257). Though water hyacinth infestation lowered the water quality, the values were within the tolerance limits for standard surface water. Therefore, the present study concluded that water hyacinth infestation did not degrade the surface water quality intensively and the surface water could be utilized for aquaculture, agriculture or recreational purposes with or without minimal treatment.