DRINKING WATER INVESTIGATION IN AL KAMLEIN LOCALITY INDUSTRIAL AREAS

Abstract

This study was conducted during the period of march 2012 to may2014 in tow locations of Al Kamlein locality industrial areas ; Giad complex and Al Bagair factories. Theyhave many factories and these factories produce and discharge significant quantity of untreated waste water which eventually gets into the underground water ,and there are some villages around these factories. The objective of this study is to assess the quality of wells drinking water in the areas (villages) around Giad industrial complex and Al Bagair industrial area . Samples were taken from twenty wells for drinking water and assigned S1 to S20 to cover all wells in the tow areas.Some parameters and ten heavy metals were measured and the results were compared with standard values stipulated by WHO for drinking water. Some methods for treatment have been suggested . The methods used in analyzing the water samples are; titrations, spectrophotometric ,and atomic absorption spectroscopic. There are many ions or constituents exceed WHO recommended values and considered as risky contaminant .The results show that temperature and EC of the samples were in the range of (19 to 28.7 oC) and ( 173 to 681 μS/cm) respectively. All samples were found to be within WHO limit for pH , except tow samples (5.4, and 9.8), low pH may be due to the addition of acidic rain water. High pH may be due to alkaline soil nature that consist of high calcium carbonate content . None of the samples have turbidity value greater than 5 NTU, which is the WHO (2008) maximum desirable limit in drinking water . Most of the samples were found to contain the metals in varying concentrations. The highest concentration of these metals were detected in chromiumwith concentration of 1.180 mg/L, lead ( 0.063 mg/L) and cadmium ( 0.91 mg/l ). Zinc copper, nickel, iron, cobalt, mercury, and arsenic were obtained in the range of (0 0.81 to 1.043 mg/L), ( 0.004 to 0.1 mg/L) , (0.005 to 0.019 mg/l), (0.08 to 4.25 mg/L),(0.56 to 3.7 mg/L), ( 0.001 to 0.002 mg/L),and (below the limit of detection to 0.013 mg/L) respectively. groundwater samples did not exhibit significant elevated levels in Arsenic , mercury, manganese ,Nickel ,Zinc, and copper .The samples were found to have elevated contents in Chromium (total), lead, iron, cadmium and sulfide ,suggesting that waste water drains may be leaking to some extent. A certain amount of Mn and Co was likely to be re-mobilized from natural soils due to the changes in local redox conditions, while Iron may also be derived from steel corrosion as a result of prolonged flow of water into pipes. samples collected appeared to be virtually free from anyCobalt contaminations. For S6 and S7 sites ,the study suggests that water from these bore wells should be totally abandoned for high concentration of many ions specially Chromium (total), leadandcadmium . It recommended the researchers to study the environmental impacts of the complex in these areas.