Assessment of war impact on concentrations of pollutants and heavy metals and their seasonal variations in water and sediments of the Tigris River in Mosul / Iraq

Abstract

War-related contamination of water and sediment of the Tigris River within the urban area of Mosul leads to seasonally independent exceedances of the WHO limit values for Cd, Pb, Cr, and Ni up to a factor of 100 in water and sediments. Furthermore, exceedances consistently occur for conductivity, PO43-, and SO42-, as well as sporadically for salinity and COD in water samples, and consistently for salinity in sediment samples, highlighting the direct impact of war (amunition, ignition of sulfur fields) as well as indirect effects (destroyed wastewater infrastructure). Conflict-related emissions from the former conflict zone (S5-S7) are highlighted by the sudden increases in load from S4 to S5, although partially masked by discharge of highly polluted water from the Khosr River (between S3 and S4). Due to sorption to sediments and presumed wind-borne discharge of highly polluted particles into the Tigris River, sediments at S10 on the southern edge of Mosul showed the highest pollutant loads. Significant statistical differences were observed by T-test analyses for E.C., TDS, salinity, COD, PO43-, NO3-, SO42-, Cd, Pb, Zn, Cr, and Ni for water samples as well as salinity, Cd, Pb, Zn, and Cr for the sediment samples for seasonal comparison. Since the percentage difference of water samples at S4-S7 is smaller than upstream and downstream, contaminant input is not limited to rainwater, but also via year-round infiltration of highly polluted wastewater from the surrounding valleys or suburban areas as well as presumably polluted groundwater or windblown particulate input.