 Seca Gandaseca (Correspondence)   + This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article. Publication rights with Alkhaer Publications. Published at: http://www.ijsciences.com/pub/issue/2018-12/ DOI: 10.18483/ijSci.1856; Online ISSN: 2305-3925; Print ISSN: 2410-4477 Water Quality Assessment of Jarum Mas River at Matang Mangrove Forest, Perak Albert Empawi Tindit 1 , Seca Gandaseca 1 , Ahmad Mustapha Mohamad Pazi 1 , Laurna Nyangon 1 1 Department of Forest Production, Faculty of Forestry, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan Malaysia Abstract: Mangrove Forest is well known with the mangrove tree that can withstand waves from the sea and even Tsunami. That has happened in Sri Lanka in 2004 where many villages at the mangrove area safe and the number of death reduced. However, this mangrove forest nowadays threatened by the human activities. Therefore, the study was carried out to determine the water quality index (WQI) of Jarum Mas river which near to the agriculture area and to compare the water quality during low and high tide. There were 30 samples of water taken during Jun and July at 5 stations along Jarum Mas river. The data collections were collected based on the six WQI parameters; Ammoniacal nitrogen (NH 3 - N), Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Dissolved Oxygen (DO), pH, Total Suspended Solids (TSS) with other five parameters; Electrical Conductivity (EC), Turbidity, Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Salinity and Temperature. The results for each parameter are summarized as follow; NH 3 -N range (4.3-4.85 mg/l), BOD range (1.5-4.2 mg/l), COD range (1095-1405 mg/l), DO range (2.27-4.91 mg/l), pH range (6.86-6.98), TSS range (48.33-70.5mg/l), EC range (33.04-38.7 mS/cm), turbidity range (19.38-26 NTU), TDS range (20.07-22.69 mg/l), salinity range (19.5-22.03 PSU), temperature range (28.25- 29.35 o C). The WQI of Jarum Mas River is Class III which need extensive treatment for water supply and only common economic value for fishery based on Water Quality Index (WQI) and Interim National Water Quality Standards for Malaysia (INWQS) by Department of Environmental Malaysia. Keywords: Water Quality; Mangrove Forest; Physico-chemical Parameters; Low and High Tide It was reported that mangrove is among the most productive coastal intertidal ecosystem in the world, confined to the tropics and subtropics, which dominate approximately 75% of the world’s coastline between 25 o N and 25 o S. Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and India are such country in Asia where the mangrove population distributed (Alongi, 2008). Mangrove forest is the most productive ecosystem for services to the environment and people as the demand is increasing nowadays (WWF, 2013). This is why mangrove forest become the most threatened tropical ecosystem. It was reported by WWF (2013) that more than 35% of the mangroves in the world was already gone by human activities and needs. Matang Mangrove Forest is one of the mangrove forests in Malaysia that well known and well management in the world. Sustainable Forest Management has been implemented in Matang Mangrove Forest where they did replanting to maintain the logs production and to achieve a sustainability management. According to Alongi (2002), mangrove forests can often be rehabilitated but not restored. Latiff (2012) was said that Matang Mangrove Forest area is 41, 617 ha which Kuala Jarum Mas is one of the mangrove forests in there. However, some of the areas in Matang Mangrove Forest nowadays has been converted into agriculture, resettlement and others. One of the main activity in there is agriculture plantation which is close to Jarum Mas river. This study is done to determine whether the agriculture plantation gives effect to the water quality status in Jarum Mas river based on the water quality parameters. MATERIAL AND METHODS The samples ware taken along Jarum Mas river at Matang Mangrove Forest which started from downstream, middle stream to the upstream. There were five stations were chosen along Jarum Mas river started from downstream, middle stream to the upstream with an average of distance 1 km between each station. The data in each station were measured by using in-situ equipment and the Global Positioning System (GPS) point of each station was recorded to locate the exact location of the sampling and to make sure that the exact location of sampling for next sampling. The water samples were also taken in 3 replications in each station for laboratory analysis by using the sample bottle and freeze it in the icebox. The method of sample analytical