Evaluation of the water quality of the Shkumbini river in the Elbasan area

Abstract

River is one of the main rivers with a length of 181 km. The watershed of this river (2445 km), includes the eastern and central part of Albania, and is characterized by forested areas. Part of the water is collected from deforested areas with high erosion. Natural factors (erosion) are dominant in the upper stream of the river, contributing to the values of TSS and different metals. But the anthropogenic factor, which is related to urban emissions and industrial activities, has a big impact. This happens in the middle stream of the river flow (Elbasan field). For this purpose, the water quality of the Shkumbini river was monitored for 4 years (2017-2020) in two stations (Labinot and Paper). Ten physico-chemical parameters. pH, Total hardness (TH), Nitrite (NO-2) , Nitrate (NO-3), Chloride (Cl-), Alkalinity, TSS and TDS, DO and Conductivity (EC) were analyzed and compared with WHO standard values and NIVA classification. The evaluation shows that we have an impact of human and industrial activity on the river waters. Determining the level of anthropogenic pollution is very important since about 28,000 ha of agricultural land is irrigated by this river.