Biological water quality assessment in the degraded Mutara rangelands, northeastern Rwanda.

ABSTRACT: Rwanda is a heavily overpopulated country that also suffers from overstocking with livestock, especially following the return of war refuges after the civil war (1991-1995). At present, approximately 20% of the human population in Nyagatare District in northeastern Rwanda has no access to clean drinking water and sanitation. We used a biotic index based on the presence of selected families of aquatic macroinvertebrates, derived from the "Tanzania River Scoring System" (TARISS), to assess water quality at N = 55 sites in the Mutara grasslands in Nyagatare District. Poor water quality became evident across most sampling sites both in the Muvumba (mean ± SE TARISS score 5.25 ± 0.10) and Karangazi Rivers (4.79 ± 0.12). Using a general linear model, we asked whether direct effects of land use f

SUBMITTER: Dusabe MC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6373534 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature