Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn pollution of surface water in selected agricultural areas / Nur Hamizah Azman

Nowadays water pollution has become one of the most important environmental health concerns. Water resources especially surface water need to be monitored for the benefit of the users. This study has been conducted in order to evaluate the quality of two locations of surface water, Sungai Jerik and Lubuk Ujid. Five heavy metals including Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn have been measured for their concentration in both locations. The water samples were collected using polyethylene bottle and acidified with nitric acid (HN03). At the laboratory, the sample were filtered and kept in a fridge. Heavy metals in all samples were determined by the Flame Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (FAAS) and Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectroscopy (ICP-MS). Result obtained for all the heavy metals was varied and the highest concentration dominated by Ni with the concentration range between 810 817µg/L. Concentration of all heavy metals except Ni were lower than the guidelines recommended by the Ministry of Health (MOH) for raw water. In order to evaluate the possible sources of the metals contaminant in water sample, "multivariate analysis" was applied. The data obtained in this study strongly suggest that the existence of Fe, Zn, Pb and Ni were closely related to the anthropogenic activities. It is expected that agricultural activities is part of the contributors. Heavy metals concentration in surface water should be continuously monitored to prevent the environmental problem become worse. For further analysis, supposed to be increased the number of sampling locations and also varies the type of heavy metals to be detected.