International Journal of Innovation and Applied Studies ISSN 2028-9324 Vol. 11 No. 1 Apr. 2015, pp. 1-5 © 2015 Innovative Space of Scientific Research Journals http://www.ijias.issr-journals.org/ Corresponding Author: Degu Lere Keshebo 1 Physicochemical parameters, Heavy metals and some ions Analysis in drinking water in selected Districts of Gedio Zone, Ethiopia Degu Lere Keshebo 1 and Mekonnen Yeshitila Degefu 2 1 Dilla College of Teachers Education Department of Chemistry, P.O. Box 334, Dilla, Ethiopia 2 Dilla College of Teachers Education Department of Biology, P.O. Box 334, Dilla, Ethiopia Copyright © 2015 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ABSTRACT: Contamination of drinking water is an important health risk factor due to the attendant toxic effect linked to it. We therefore assessed the quality of water samples in each of the study areas of Gedyo Zone where water quality suspected with some problems by Zonal water quality administrative. In this study, heavy metals, fluoride, phosphorus light metals and physicochemical parameters of the water samples including pH, turbidity, total dissolved solids (TDS) were determined. The pH ranged from 6.77 to 8.19; while turbidity ranged from 3.78 to 40.2 NFU for borehole water in the study areas. On the other hand, TDS was in the order of 1.83 to 62. The levels of fluoride and phosphorus are in the acceptable range according to WHO permissive limit. Mean concentration of heavy metals for the water samples in all of the study areas were found to be in WHO acceptable range. However, Iron (Fe) level in Dilla College of Teacher`s Education (DCTE) exceeded WHO permissive level. Findings from this study show that water sources in the DCTE has high amount of iron and its turbidity is very high compared to other site in the study areas, which needs further treatment before dispatching for the public use. KEYWORDS: Drinking-water; physicochemical parameters; heavy metals; Fluoride and phosphorus. INTRODUCTION Water is one of the abundantly available substances in nature; it is an essential constituent of all animals and vegetables matter and forms about 70% of the matter of earth crust (APHA, 1980). Water is mostly used for industrial and municipal purposes (Gasim et al., 2007). Today human activities are constantly adding industrial, domestic and agricultural waste to ground water reservoirs at an alarming rate (Gautam, 1990). Ground water contamination is generally in irreversible. Excessive mineralization of ground water degrades water quality producing an objectionable taste, odor and excessive hardness (Horrison). It is always better to protect ground water first rather than recycling on technology to clean up water from contaminated source (ICMR, 1975). Polluted ground water is the major cause for the spread of epidemics and chronic diseases of man. It causes typhoid, dysentery, diarrhea, tuberculosis and hepatitis (Trivedi D.K. and Goal P.K, 1984). Contaminants are substances that are dissolved in water and make it unfit for use. Some contaminants can be easily identified only by assessing the taste, odor and turbidity of the water because pure water remains tasteless, colorless and odorless. However, most cannot be easily detected and require testing to reveal whether or not water is contaminated. Physico-chemical parameters of water are important to determine the quality of drinking water as according to WHO (1996). The physical parameters that are likely to give rise to complaint from consumers are color, taste, odor and turbidity while low pH causes corrosion and high pH results in taste complaints (Chan et al., 2007). Some anions like phosphate, fluoride, sulphate, nitrite and nitrate and cations like Ca +2 , Mg +2 , Na + and K + are essential parameters for drinking water. Heavy metals also can be contaminant if they found above permissive value. Heavy metals are elements of high atomic numbers. They have high utilities in industrial applications from papers to automobiles, by their very characteristic