PHYSICOCHEMICAL PARAMETERS AND BACTERIAL COMPOSITION IN SUNGAI PUSU GOMBAK

Sungai Pusu is a river that flows through the campus of the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), Gombak. This river could have been affected by pollution and urbanization making the water to be cloudy in appearance. The massive deterioration of the river was identified caused by housing construction at the upstream. There is also waste dumping area located near tributary of Sungai Pusu which may lead to leachate seeping into the river. The location within university area with lots of residents makes the river exposed to daily pollution. This study was carried out with samples taken from 8 stations within the campus to determine the bacterial distribution and the physicochemical parameters at the Sungai Pusu, Gombak. Physicochemical parameters (temperature, specific conductivity, dissolved oxygen and pH) were analyzed by using Hydrolab (Data Sonde 4A). Temperature range was found from 30°C to 34°C, pH range from 7.67 to 8.42, dissolved oxygen ranged from 2.80mg/l to 4.88mg/l, and specific conductance ranged from 0.041ms/cm to 0.134ms/cm. High bacterial colony (cfu mL-1) was observed at Station 8 (39,272 cfu mL-1) followed by Station 5 (30,311 cfu mL-1) while, the lowest bacterial colony was found at Station 6 (2,005 cfu mL-1). This study provides an overview on the distribution of the bacterial varied with physicochemical parameters throughout the river which might be due to the human intervention and natural.