COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE WATER QUALITY OF KAMBO AND LONGMAYAGUI RIVERS FROM BIOLOGICAL DIATOM INDEXES

The anarchic and rampant human impact in the city of Douala is the cause of the deterioration of its wetlands. The overall objective of the study is to determine the water quality of Kambo and Longmayagui rivers of Douala located in peri-urban and urban center respectively from Diatoms indexes. Organic materials and stones were sampled in each river. A total of 43 species belonging to 9 families and 22 genera were identified. The Diatom index is 4.0 to Kambo river (site 1) and 6.9 to Longmayagui river (site 2). These indexes show that Kambo river is less polluted, while Longmayagui river is polluted. The most frequent and abundant Diatoms in the samples of the two streams, Batika river characteristics (control) and Kambo can be used as indicators of unpolluted environment. These are : Amphipleura pellucida Kuetzing, Aulacoseira granulata (Ehrenberg) Simonsen, Cymatopleura solea Bourrelly, Cymbella amphicephala Naegeli, Cymbella cesatii (Rabenhorst) Grunow, Cymbella frustula Krammer and Lange-Berthalot, Cymbella naviculiformis Averswald, Diatoma mesodon (Ehrenberg) Kuetzing, Fragilaria capucina (Kuetzing) Lange-Bertalot, Melosira varians JG Agarda, Navicula accomoda Hustedt, Navicula nivalis Ehrenberg, Nitzschia fonticola Grunow, Pinnularia gibba Ehrenberg and Tabellaria flocculosa (Roth) Kuetzing. Monitoring, based on biological indexes of algae could be developed in order to prevent risks of disruption due to various pollutants.