ISSN(Online): 2319-8753 ISSN (Print): 2347-6710 International Journal of Innovative Research in Science, Engineering and Technology (An ISO 3297: 2007 Certified Organization) Vol. 6, Issue 8, August 2017 Copyright to IJIRSET Assessment on the Current Water Quality Status of Walgamo River, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Dessalew Berihun 1* , Belina Tarfassa 2 , Getachew Dagnew 1 Department of Environmental Management, Faculty of Urban Development Studies, Ethiopia 1 Department of Chemistry, College of Natural and Computational Sciences, Ethiopia 2 Abstract: Urban River pollution has been one of the main issues in the world. Currently, Addis Ababa is one of the fast growing cities and concurrently the rivers in the city are vulnerable to pollution. The purpose of this study is to assess the current status of water quality of Walgamo River, which is located closer to Kotebe Metropolitan University. Water samples were collected from six sampling sites of Walgamo River and analyzed for physico-chemical parameters and fresh water elements in August 2016 and December 2016. The maximum recorded values were pH (6.64), total alkalinity (171.75 mg/L), turbidity (57 NTU), biochemical oxygen demand (72 mg/L), hardness (237.5 mg/L), total dissolved solids (283 mg/L), chloride (60 mg/L), chemical oxygen demand (177 mg/L), electrical conductivity (561 μS) Temperature 22.8 o C), phosphorus (1.2 mg/L), arsenic (6.22 mg/L), and mercury (14.26 mg/L). Thus results show that the quality of Walgamo River is below the expected water quality standard. Keywords: Walgamo river, Pollution, Water quality parameters, Water quality standard I. INTRODUCTION Water is an essential and life-sustaining natural resource and is critical for the survival of all living organisms, food production and economic development. Surface waters are most exposed to pollution due to their easy accessibility for disposal of wastewaters. Water pollution is continuously becoming a serious problem, mainly caused by the disposal of untreated sewage and industrial waste, animal waste and chemical fertilizers [1-3]. The fresh water resources are depleted because of massive agricultural activities, urbanization, and industrialization. Urbanization degrades streams and rivers and contributes to decreased ecological health in watersheds. Urban rivers have always been the recipient of sewage water from various sources that have different kinds of the domestic, agricultural, and industrial wastes [4]. It is commonly known that raw municipal wastewater contains a great number of pathogenic and opportunistic microorganisms as well as those antibiotic resistant including multidrug resistant, mainly of intestinal origin [5]. Urban rivers are sink that collect the municipal liquid and solid wastes with huge amount of sludge [6]. Particularly urban centers of developing countries, surface water resources, have become dump yards for waste. This is confirmed by the fact that about million tons of waste is disposed off within receiving waters daily [6]. As a result, the municipal sewage is a mixture of various organic matters, and the decomposition of these matters produces harmful gases that in fact deteriorate the environment and logically create the infection diseases [6]. The deterioration of water quality