Status of water quality subject to sand mining in the kelantan river, kelantan.

This paper aimed to describe the effects of sand mining on the Kelantan River with respect to physical and chemical parameter analyses. Three replicates of water samples were collected from five stations along the Kelantan River (November 2010 until February 2011). The physical parameters included water temperature, water conductivity, dissolved oxygen (DO), pH, total dissolved solids (TDS), total suspended solids (TSS) and turbidity, whereas the chemical parameters included the concentration of nitrogen nutrients such as ammonia, nitrate and nitrite. The Kelantan River case study revealed that TSS, turbidity and nitrate contents exceed the Malaysian Interim National Water Quality Standard (INWQS) range and are significantly different between Station 1 (KK) and Station 3 (TM). Station 1 has the largest variation of TDS, TSS, turbidity and nitrogen nutrients because of sand mining and upstream logging activities. The extremely high content of TSS and the turbidity have caused poor and stressful conditions for the aquatic life in the Kelantan River.