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Assessment of surface water quality in a drinking water supply reservoir in Vietnam: a combination of different indicators

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Abstract

Eutrophication and water pollution have become serious aquatic environmental problems worldwide. In this study, four different water quality indexing methods, the Canadian Council of Ministers of Environment Water Quality Index (CCME WQI), the revised Comprehensive Pollution Index (CPI), the Eutrophication Index (EI), and the Trophic State Index (TSI), were used to investigate water quality and trophic status in the Tri An Reservoir (TAR), Vietnam. Nineteen water variables were monitored bimonthly between February 2018 and December 2019 to calculate these four indices. Although different input data sets were used, all the indices showed similar results in terms of water quality and eutrophic state. The CCME WQI ranged from 32 to 68 (median 36–48), which indicated that the water quality was classified between poor and marginal and was insufficient for domestic purposes. Similarly, the water quality was ranked between slightly polluted and medium polluted based on the revised CPI index, with the median values ranging from 0.72 to 0.94. In the CCME WQI and the CPI, the major parameters that contributed to water pollution in the TAR were turbidity, dissolved oxygen (DO), total suspended solids (TSS), chemical and biological oxygen demand (BOD5), ammonium (NH4+), nitrite (NO2−), iron (Fe), lead (Pb), and coliforms. Regarding the trophic status of water, the EI ranged from 10 to 464, indicating that the reservoir was eutrophic, and the TSI values ranged from 53 to 89, indicating that the water quality was classified between light-eutrophic and hypereutrophic conditions. A temporal variation in water quality was found, with the highest levels of pollution recorded in June during the study period. Our results show that the combination of different water quality indices provides a comprehensive assessment of water quality in the TAR.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for the assistance by the staff the Ma Da Commune People’s Committee for their assistance in the field campaigns. We thank Nguyen Vu Linh for water sample collection. Special thanks are owed to editors and anonymous referees for their valuable comments on our manuscript.

Funding

This research was funded by the International Foundation for Science (IFS) under grant number “I-2-A-6054-1”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. HUTECH University, 475A Dien Bien Phu Street, Ward 25, Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City, 700000, Vietnam

    Thanh Luu Pham

  2. Institute of Tropical Biology, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST), 85 Tran Quoc Toan Street, District 3, Ho Chi Minh City, 700000, Vietnam

    Thanh Luu Pham, Thi Hoang Yen Tran, Thanh Thai Tran, Xuan Quang Ngo & Xuan Dong Nguyen

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  1. Thanh Luu Pham
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  2. Thi Hoang Yen Tran
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  3. Thanh Thai Tran
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  4. Xuan Quang Ngo
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Contributions

Conceptualization TLP. Formal analysis THYT and TTT. Investigation TLP, THYT and TTT. Methodology TLP, TTT and XQN. Preparing original draft TLP, THYT. Writing, review and editing TLP, TTT, XQN and XDN. All authors have read and agreed to the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Thanh Luu Pham.

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Pham, T.L., Tran, T.H.Y., Tran, T.T. et al. Assessment of surface water quality in a drinking water supply reservoir in Vietnam: a combination of different indicators. Rend. Fis. Acc. Lincei 33, 653–662 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12210-022-01086-5

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