Abstract
Open and non-engineered dumping is a typical method for solid waste disposal in most cities of Pakistan. This practice of waste dumping poses a serious threat to the surrounding ecosystem and human population due to the release and transport of decomposed organic matter, i.e., leachate from dumpsite into the groundwater. The present study was conducted over a non-engineered and open dumpsite (Chowa Gujar), located in the outskirts of the highly populated city of Peshawar by using integrated geophysical techniques such as electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and geochemical techniques. The main goal was to delineate the characterization and depth of buried waste, to map the subsurface extension of contaminant plumes towards agricultural land and groundwater table and the concentration of heavy metals (HMs) in dump and agricultural soil. Geophysical results showed that the thickness of buried waste (predominantly composed of domestic waste) was around 4 m and the leachate plumes have percolated to the adjacent agricultural land. A range of heavy metals (mg/kg) such as Cr (20.5–26.6), Cd (2.6–5.7), Pb (0.35–21.25), Ni (2.5–53.05), Cu (29–68.3), Zn (45.7–77), and Co (18.9–23.2) have been found in the agricultural land adjacent to the dumpsite. The findings demonstrated that combined use of ERT and GPR successfully characterize the buried waste and spread of pollutant plumes spatially and vertically from Chowa Gujar dumpsite. The anomalous geophysical signatures were confirmed by geochemical characterization. The movement of leachate plumes towards agricultural land and groundwater table and the concentration of HMs in soil show that Chowa Gujar dumpsite is a potential source of contamination not only to the surrounding population but also to the agricultural land, surface (Bara River), and subsurface water bodies. In the study region, there is an urgency to take remediation and mitigation measures to reduce the level of pollution created by the dumpsite.
Highlights
Municipal solid waste (MSW) management is an internationally identified environmental issue in major populated areas, especially in developing countries, it has been highlighted in United Nations Sustainable development goals (SDG’s); the main aim of these SDG’s is to reduce such threats by 2030 [1]
The zone between waste contained zone and leachate plumes is known as the intermittent zone, which is observed between the depth of 4 m to 6 m and is the lower limit of solid dump waste and a transition to a high conductive zone
ground-penetrating radar (GPR) did not permit the deeper structure at the studied site to delineate the accurate vertical extension of the leachate plume or mapping migration pathways due to the strong attenuation of electromagnetic waves in the highly conductive zone
Summary
Municipal solid waste (MSW) management is an internationally identified environmental issue in major populated areas, especially in developing countries, it has been highlighted in United Nations Sustainable development goals (SDG’s); the main aim of these SDG’s is to reduce such threats by 2030 [1]. Sustainability 2022, 14, 1443 representing an annual population growth rate of 2.4 percent since the last census in 1998 [3]. The urbanization and increasing population growth will result in several challenges, e.g., MSW management across the globe, especially in developing countries. The main challenges in managing these sites include weak government policies, lack of interest in social, and industrial organizations. This has led to poor waste management systems in ever-expanding metropolitan cities like Peshawar
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