Poor sanitation practice is very common in the developing nations of the world as it is observed in Nigeria and River Benue at Makurdi. Waste are indiscriminately dumped in the river without recourse to the harm of the waste on the biodiversity of the river. To access the ecological integrity of river Benue at Makurdi, water samples were collected for two years from July 2011 to June 2013. Surface water temperature and dissolved oxygen content of the water samples were determined insitu using standard measuring metres in line with standard methods. The correlation analysis between DO and surface water temperature in River Benue at Makurdi showed that correlation was significant at the brewery location only during the course of the study. Across the study locations in river Benue during the study period indicate that the R2 valued varied from 0.0006- 0.17 indicating a very weak relationship between surface water temperature and dissolved oxygen in River Benue. The lowest R2 value of 0.0006 was obtained at Mikap Nigeria Ltd and the highest R2 value of 0.17 was at Brewery location during the period of the study. This results showed clearly the DO content of river Benue at Makurdi depend on the organic waste dumped in the river and not surface water temperature. It was recommended that indiscriminate dumping of waste in to river should be discouraged
Keywords: DO, Relationship, River Benue, Surface water temperature
