Groundwater contamination through potentially harmful metals and its implications in groundwater management

Abstract

Groundwater contamination through potentially harmful metals (PHMs) is an environmental hazard in Pakistan with significant human health risk reports. The current research was conducted in Sheikhupura District, which is a major industrial site in Punjab, Pakistan. According to the Punjab Directorate of Industries in Pakistan, there are a total of 748 industries in this area. These industries produce a lot of waste and effluent, which contaminate the environment with harmful and toxic materials. Continuous irrigation with industrial effluent and sewage sludge may make groundwater sources vulnerable. Therefore, we collected 243 groundwater samples from community tube wells to investigate the groundwater quality cconcerning PHM contaminations in the study area. This research presents the values of pH, total dissolved solids (TDS), electrical conductivity (EC), and potentially harmful metals (PHMs) like arsenic (As), manganese (Mn), lead (Pb), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), and iron (Fe). PHMs such as As (91%), Mn (14%), Pb (97%), Fe (45%), Zn (15%), in these samples were beyond the permitted limit recommended by the world health organization (WHO). Principal component analysis (PCA) results with total variability of (60%) reveal that the groundwater sources of the study area are contaminated about 30.9, 31.3, and 37.6% of contaminations of groundwater sources of this study are resulted from geogenic sources, anthropogenic sources, or both geogenic and anthropogenic sources, respectively. Such sources may include rock-water interaction, mining actions, agricultural practices, domestic sewage, and industrial effluent in the study area. Saturation indices show that the aquifers of the study area are saturated with lead hydroxide, zinc hydroxide, and goethite minerals, indicating that these minerals have a vital role in the contamination of groundwater. Health risk assessment results predicted that the non-carcinogenic risk (HQ) values of PHMs were found within the permissible limit (<1), except As (1.58E+00) for children, while carcinogenic risk (CR) values of all selected PHMs were lower than the maximum threshold CR value (1 × 10−4).

Assessment of heavy metal content in groundwaters of Ikpe Community, Akwa Ibom State, Niger Delta, Nigeria

“…All the mean values exceeded the acceptable limit (0.02 mg/L) set by FMEnv (2011). This could be attributed to geogenic effect exacerbated by anthropogenic effects especially in wells 2 and 4 (Ullah et al, 2022). Geogenic contamination is the natural occurrence of some elements in groundwater at elevated levels above acceptable limits with potential of adverse health effect (CGWB, 2014).…”

Hydrogeochemical characterization and water quality evaluation for drinking and irrigation purposes of coastal aquifers of Middle Andaman

“…Spatial variations in major ions were analyzed statistically and are presented in Table 1 and Figures [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. Spatial mapping was accomplished using the inverse distance weighting (IDW) tool within ArcGIS 10.8, which assumes the proximity rule.…”

Comparative Study of Geospatial Techniques for Interpolating Groundwater Quality Data in Agricultural Areas of Punjab, Pakistan

“…In the eastern and central areas of Punjab, the elevated As concentration is attributed to higher soil pH levels (8.0-8.5), which are prevalent throughout the Indus Plane [44]. Due to the soil's higher pH, As desorption is triggered in the upper soil layers, and subsequently, leaching occurs down to the groundwater [23,27]. In Southern Punjab, however, aridity is the dominating cause of the elevated As levels, resulting from higher evaporation rates [45].…”

“…When ingested, As can cause serious health consequences such as cardiovascular damage, neurological effects, oxidative stress, enzyme inhibition, and development abnormalities [21]. Several studies have reported elevated levels of As in the country's groundwater resources, ranging from 10 ppb to 600 ppb, which significantly exceed the standards set by the World Health Organization [23][24][25][26][27]. For instance, ref.…”