Heavy metal content and health risk assessment of a South-eastern Nigeria River
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Heavy metal content and health risk assessment of a South‑eastern Nigeria River Emeka Donald Anyanwu1 · Emeka David Nwachukwu1 Received: 16 September 2019 / Accepted: 24 August 2020 / Published online: 2 September 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract An enormous deficiency lag exists in the demand and supply of potable water in Umuahia, Abia State, Nigeria. The people have to pay lots of money to get potable water from water vendors, and those who cannot afford to pay patronize other unwholesome sources. Ossah River, one of the local drinking water sources, was studied to assess the heavy metal content and health risk assessment vis-a-vis its suitability for human consumption. Eight (8) heavy metals (Mn, Cu, Pb, Fe, Zn, Cd, Cr and Ni) were assessed between January and June 2018 in 3 stations, using atomic absorption spectrometer, and compared with Nigerian drinking water standards. Some of the heavy metals evaluated exceeded standards and warranted health risk assessment. Health risk assessment for all the stations indicated that there is no particularly dangerous single heavy metal, but their cumulative effect, indicated by the hazard index (HI). HI for all the stations highly exceeded threshold value (1). This calls for concern for both adults and children exposed to the water through ingestion. The heavy metal contamination observed was geogenic, exacerbated by anthropogenic activities. Keywords River · Heavy metal · Effluent · Anthropogenic · Limits
Introduction Rivers is one of the most important freshwater resources, and most developmental activities are dependent upon them (Al Obaidy et al. 2015). Surface waters like lakes, rivers and streams and groundwater like springs and well waters usually serve as sources of drinking water. Rivers in a watershed play a major role in assimilating or carrying off municipal and industrial wastewater and runoff from agricultural land (Wang et al. 2007). Industrialization is considered a necessity for the development of a country’s economy, through the establishment of plants and factories (Ho et al. 2012). However, the waste or by-products discharged from them are destructive to the environment; contaminating the surface water, ground water and soil (Adakole 2011). The wastewaters are not safely treated because of the lack of highly efficient and economic treatment technology (Ho et al. 2012) and failure in institutional monitoring and control. * Emeka Donald Anyanwu [email protected] 1
Department of Zoology and Environmental Biology, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State, Nigeria
The term ‘‘heavy metals’’ refers to any metallic element that has relatively high density and applies to the group of metals and metalloids with atomic density greater than 5 g cm−3 (Oves et al. 2012). Some of them are essential elements without which the biochemical processes in living organisms would not be possible; however, when they exceed normal concentrations, they become harmful to organisms (Goorzadi et al. 2009; Bytyçi et al. 2018). Heavy
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