Status of Heavy Metals in Water and Sediment of the Meghna River, Bangladesh

Abstract

Abstract:The pollution of river water and sediments by heavy metals has assumed serious problems due to their toxicity and accumulative behavior. The present study has been undertaken to assess the levels of heavy metals and the extent of pollution in the surface water and sediments from the Meghna river. Water and sediment samples were collected by the Standard Methods and, processed and analyzed for heavy metals using Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (FAAS). The mean concentrations of heavy metal found in the river water were in the order of: ). Pb and Ni were found below detection limit in river water. Based on the findings, the Meghna river water can be considered as unpolluted with respect to Cd, Cr, Mn and Zn, whereas concentration of Fe was above the standard value according to recommended standard guidelines. According to Sediment Quality Guideline (USEPA, 1989), sediments were not polluted for Cd, Pb and Zn; moderately polluted for Cr and Mn and heavily polluted for Ni. The sediment geo-accumulation index (I geo ) values showed no pollution for most of sampling sites for all studied heavy metals. Pollution Load Index (PLI) values showed that all the studied sampling sites were not polluted and on the other hand mean Contamination Factor (CF) values showed low pollution for all measured heavy metals except Ni which indicated moderate pollution. This study can be used as reference to monitor the quality of water and sediments of the Meghna river.

Seasonal Variation and Ecological Risk Assessment of Heavy Metal Contamination in Surface Waters of the Ganges River (Northwestern Bangladesh)

“…The results of heavy metal concentrations in surface water is shown in Table 2. The comparison of present findings with other national and international rivers is shown Table 3, where the present findings is compared with those from past research [22][23][24][25][26][27][28]. The average concentration of studied metals followed the decreasing order: Cr > Zn > Cu > Pb > Cd > Ni > As.…”

Monitoring and assessment of heavy metal contamination in surface water and sediment of the Old Brahmaputra River, Bangladesh

“…The concentrations exceeded the permissible limit set by WHO (2008), USEPA (1999) and FAO (1985). It is suggested that the concentration Al and Mn originated from the lithogenic and is also associated with spinning miles and paint industries wastes (Rahman et al 2014;Hassan et al 2015). The concentration of Zn varied from 32.78 to 81 mg/ kg.…”

“…Hg concentration was recorded below the detection limit in all sediment samples in all seasons. A higher concentration of these metals was affected by discharges of textile and paint industries and domestic sewage waste (Datta and Subramanian 1998;Balkis et al 2010;Ergul et al 2008;Ahmad et al 2010;Saha and Hossain 2011;Ahmed et al 2012;Hassan et al 2015).…”

Surface and Ground Water Pollution in Bangladesh: A Review

“…The permissible level of DO, COD and BOD indicates that the lower dumping of organic wastes and lower aerobic bacterial decomposition has been occurred in those rivers. A very recent study showed that COD level (20.84-114.6) in the Meghna river is higher than permissible level [15]. This is may be occurred due to the transboundary water flow from polluted Buriganga and Shitalakkhya river into the Meghna river.…”

“…The use of this water may highly risk for sore on skin. The river Buriganga [8] Turag [9,25] Shitallakhya [10,26] and Meghna [15] are highly polluted which is indicated by higher level of COD value.…”