Actual Status Assessment and Prediction of the Musi River Water Quality, Palembang, South Sumatra, Indonesia

Water pollution in rivers is still a crucial problem for the countries that use river water as the primary water source. This study aimed to determine the water quality of the Musi river and the content of heavy metals in water, sediment and mussels as well as to predict the water quality of the Musi river in the next five years. The water samples were taken from 18 stations (sampling points) from upstream to downstream to be checked physically, chemically and biologically. Prediction of the river water quality was made using the QUAL2Kw software. The research results show that the Musi River water is categorized as lightly polluted with concentrations of TSS and DO that have passed the threshold. The heavy metals in river water, such as Pb and Cr have also passed the quality standard. The Fe, Mn, and Zn concentrations are pretty high in the sediment. In turn, in mussels, the metals measured were Fe, Cu, and Zn. The prediction results reveal that several values of the river quality parameters will pass the threshold value with the same pattern tendency from each station.