Status and contamination assessment of heavy metals pollution in coastal sediments, southern Kuwait

Abstract

To assess the heavy metals concentration in the coastal sediments of the southern Kuwait coast, Fe, Mn, Cu, Pb, Ni, Co, Cd and Cr were measured by inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy. Whereas, the south of Kuwait coast is characterized by the presence of tourist resorts, and commercial and oil exports harbors. Moreover, environmental indicators were used to help in evaluating the degree and the intensity of pollutants in these sediments. Geoaccumulation index (Igeo) revealed that the sediments of hard all Hamara and Al-Khiran coasts are moderately polluted by Cu, while Ras Al-Zour and Ras Al-Jula’ia coasts are moderately polluted by Cd. Moreover, the enrichment factor (EF) indicated that the sediments of Hadd Al-Hamara coast are severely enriched with Ni, Cr and Pb, while the Al-Khiran coast is moderate severely enriched with the same metals. Ras Al-Zour and Ras Al-Jula’ia coasts are severely enriched with Ni and very severely enriched with Pb. Simultaneously, all studied sites are extremely severely enriched with Cu and Cd. These results were confirmed by the results of the contamination factor (CF) and the soil pollution index (SPI) indicated that Hadd Al-Hamara and Al-Khiran coasts are highly contaminated with Cu and Cd, while Ras Al-Zour and Ras Al-Jula’ia coasts are highly contaminated with Cd. Generally, the pollution load index showed that the sediments of all studied sites are no heavy metal pollution (PLI < 1). Pollutants might be originated from commercial wastes and construction activities.