“…Wabe River is one of the rivers in the Gurage zone of southern Ethiopia flows across the urban areas and ends up into the Omo-Gibe basin. A number of anthropogenic and natural activities, including agricultural runoff water ( Ustaoğlu et al., 2021 ; Terfasa et al., 2019 ; Parris, 2011 ), domestic wastewater ( Preisner, 2020 ; Ustaoğlu and Tepe, 2019 ), dumping of solid waste in canals and inappropriate locations ( Menberu et al., 2021 ; Egbueri et al., 2021 ; Weldeyohanis et al., 2020 ), urban sediment inflow ( Egbueri, 2022 ; Sahle et al., 2019 ; Ustaoğlu and Tepe, 2019 ), river flows through lithogenic structures ( Asnake et al., 2021 ), and soil erosion ( Reddythota and Timotewos, 2022 ; Terfasa et al., 2019 ), have a negative impact on the water quality over time. These surface water resources are no longer suitable for drinking, industrial, agricultural, and other applications due to water quality degradation ( Egbueri et al., 2021 ; Ustaoğlu et al., 2020 ; Hamid et al., 2020 ; Şener et al., 2017 ).…”