Heavy metals in well's waters within Southern Basrah Province / Iraq

Abstract

Due to continuous decline of water discharge in southern Iraq, the need arises to use ground water as alternate source for water required for different purposes in which it suppose to be clean and free of pollutants such as, petroleum hydrocarbons, heavy metals, pesticides, ..., etc. Within this study, ten well's of water spread in Southern part of Iraq, two in each site represented by Safwan (1 and 2), Zubair (3 and 4), Khor Al-Zubair (5 and 6), Al-Burjisiah (7 and 8), and Shuaibah (9 and 10) were investigated to estimate their contents of heavy metals. The collected water samples from the selected well's were analyzed for total heavy metals: Cd, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn, on a monthly basis for the period Jan. - Dec. 2015. Atomic absorption spectroscopy technique was adopted for the determination of heavy metal concentrations. All studied metals are present in the water of wells' spread in Southern part of Basrah Province of Iraq. Certain metals present in little amounts (μg/l) in the range 0 - 0.5649 for Pb, 0 - 4.3909 for Ni, 0 - 32.0170 for Cu, and 0 - 8.5486 for Cd, while other metals were higher in the range 0 - 107.9698 for Mn, 4.336 - 312.1651 for Fe, and 11.982 - 439.3581 for Zn. Fe and Zn are exist in all wells' and during all periods of study. As a mean values the trends of heavy metals in well' water of southern Iraq is as follows: Zn>Fe>Mn>Cd>Cu>Ni>Pb. High concentrations of studied heavy metals were recorded in wells' no. 7&8 at Burjisiah and 9 &10 at Shuaibah due to proximity to fields of oil production and transportation. Moreover, high levels of heavy metals in the wells' waters at studied, area were recorded during the rainy months: Jan., Feb., Mar., April as well as May and June which indicates that rain water is a major source for pollution by heavy metals in the ground water at Southern Iraq.