Evaluation and characterization of wastewater generated from University of Gondar, Ethiopia

•Most nutrient concentrations were higher than the permissible limit of FAO/WHO.•The most heavy metals were below detection limit except Pb.•Values of the physico-chemical parameters were within a permissive limit of FAO/WHO. Wastewater management in higher educational institutions is an existing environmental challenge in Ethiopia. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate and characterize university of Gondar wastewater and its impact on the downstream community. The University has five campuses and one community school and staff residential areas. Wastewater samples were collected and analyzed for the physic-chemical, nutrients and heavy metals from eight sampling sites in 2020. The results of the study were ranged as temperature (20.60 °C–25.02 °C), pH (6.9–8.2), Electrical conductivity (871.5to3630), turbidity (4.11to330NTUs), total dissolved solids (360.3–1824), dissolved oxygen (3.4–8.5), biological oxygen demand(1.0–4.1 mg/L), salinity (0.34–1.9), nitrate (4.2–33.0 mg/L, nitrite (0.33–10.6 mg/L with mean value of 2.4 mg/L), NH3–N (0.08–3.10 mg/L with mean value of 0.83 mg/L), phosphate (8.38–270.00 mg/L with mean value of 52.53 mg/L), sulfate (2.00–195.00 mg/L with mean value of 79.4 mg/L). The mean value of phosphate was within the permissible limit of FAO and WHO but above the limit of USEPA, and mean concentration of nitrate was found to be above the maximum permissible limit set by FAO and USEPA. Similarly, the values of sulfate was above the acceptable range for wastewater discharged limit set by FAO and WHO and that of ammonia was above the limit of WHO. Regarding heavy metal analyses, only lead was above the permissible limit. Thus, the result showed that the wastewater released from University of Gondar pose a risk to the surrounding environment and human health unless a proper waste management system is implemented. Moreover, the university should implement recycling of wastes in order to apply circular economy.