Nutrient Load of the Sakumo Lagoon at the Sakumo Ramsar Site in Tema, Ghana

Water samples were collected from three sections (South, Centre and North) of the Sakumo lagoon for a period of 6 months and analyzed for NO -N, PO -P, NO -N and NH -N, and the results were compared with the 2 4 3 3 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-Ghana permissible guideline values for effluents discharged into water bodies and values from similar studies on the lagoon in 1995 and 2003. Observations showed that, of all the nutrients studied, phosphates were the highest in the Sakumo lagoon. The decreasing order of nutrient concentrations in the lagoon were PO -P > NH -N > NO -N > NO -N. The nutrient levels in the lagoon have also 4 3 3 2 shown significant increase over the years.