A typological study of the physicochemical quality of water in the Menoua- Cameroon watershed

Cameroon, a country in Central Africa with an outlet to the Atlantic Ocean in the Gulf of Guinea, holds enormous potentialities of water resources. These resources used for the supply of water for human consumption, etc., would be polluted by the intensification of anthropogenic activities, of which the most important recorded in the Menoua watershedof West Cameroon are agriculture and breeding. The objective of this work was to study the spatiotemporal parameters of the physicochemical quality parameters (temperature, pH, electrical conductivity, Turbidity, Nitrates, Ortho Phosphates, Sulphates, Chloride, Potassium and Calcium) the Menoua watershedthrough a main Principal Component Analysis (ACP). The results obtained showed that the pH, turbidity and orthophosphate have levels which are in contradiction with WHO standards. The physicochemical parameters of this water showed significant spatial and seasonal variations, the causes of which probably related to the human activities generating pollutants. The Principal Component Analysis in this study identified four distinct types of human drinking water depending on the movement of surrounding human activities and the seasons. These results show the acuteness of the problem and the urgency to rationalize the codes of good agricultural practice and sanitation in order to combat this pollution effectively.