The effect of Industrial and Sewage discharges on the quality of receiving waters and human health, Riyadh City-Saudi Arabia

Abstract

This work was conducted to evaluate the physico-chemical parameters and level of nine selected heavy metals in streams affected by discharges from two different industrial locations and one from treated sewage area, Riyadh City. The concentration ranges of heavy metals are ranked in order of magnitude as Zn > Cu > Pb > Cr > Ni > As > Cd > Hg > Co with increasing concentrations in water samples collected from discharged industrial effluents into L1 and L2. For all samples, Pearson's correlation matrices among the studied heavy metals and environmental parameters revealed a highly significant positive correlation (r > 0.86, p < 0.05) that suggesting a common source of these metals. Metal partition coefficient (kd), recorded a high value for Cd, Co, Pb, Cr and As that indicated a significant binding between those metals and the particles in suspension especially for L1 and L2. The heavy metal pollution indexes (HPI) of different locations are found far above the critical threshold value of 100 due to anthropogenic origin that includes industrial activities. Studies of health risk assessment indicated that 80 persons out of 200 suffered from sinusitis followed by 70 suffered from nearsightedness, 50 from throat ashes and skin irritation.

Keywords

• Heavy metals
• Pollution
• Saudi Arabia
• Water quality