Impact of Secondary Stress on Desertification Process -
Role of Petroleum Refinery Pollution on the Surface Water Quality
of Marginal Ecosystem in Kaduna, Nigeria

Amin Al-Amin

Department of Geography, Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna, Nigeria
cell: +234 803 7053050

e-mail: dr.aminu@yahoo.com

Abstract

Field investigations through surface water sampling and laboratory analyses revealed that pollution is currently the most harmful anthropogenic activity impacting on the physical environment of Kaduna; a region that has for a long time being threatened by desertification. The fragile ecosystem of Kaduna, especially around the petroleum refinery has exhibited sharp difference in the quality status of the surrounding surface water along river Romi, with such chemical parameters of Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Suspended Solids, Dissolved Solids, Total Solids e.t.c. attaining excessive values of over 300 percent increase. Similarly, the physical characteristics of the studied surface water in terms of Turbidity and Temperature are also recording setbacks; as none of the two is close to the standard values specified by the Nigeria’s Federal Environmental Protection Agency (FEPA). Overall result of the study show that ecological instability as occasioned by the refinery pollution has exacerbated the region’s desertification process faster than what obtains in areas outside the refinery’s influence within the region.