Long Term Monitoring of Heavy Metal Pollutants in Sediment of Southern Iraq

Abstract

The levels of seven heavy metals (Cd, Co, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb and Zn) were determined in the sediment samples from different water bodies southern Iraq. Distribution of these heavy metals in sediment showed variations in concentration with sampling site, it was undetectable for Cd and Pb for all sites, while the highest concentration was 2.207 µg/g for Ni in the upper and the middle part of Shatt Al-Arab River. Co, Cu, Fe, Ni and Zn ranged from 0.083, 0.402, 1.829, 0.214 and 0.307 µg/g, respectively in Al-Chibayish Marsh to 0.486, 0.863, 2.186, 2.207 and 1.343 µg/g, respectively in the middle part of Shatt Al-Arab River. The geoaccumulation Index (Igeo) was calculated for the metals in the sediment of this study and for all other findings since 2001, to evaluate the levels of sediment pollution with heavy metals. The values of Igeo indicated that the sediment of southern Iraq were mostly unpolluted with heavy metals, except for Cd which was the polluting element in almost all of the previous studies.