Heavy Metals in Keana Salt Lake and Some Sources of Drinking Water Within the Keana Salt Lake Community, Nasarawa State, Nigeria

Sule Philip Ivoms Ogah

doi:10.11648/j.sjac.20200802.13

Abstract

Utilization of Salt Lake may portend risk in terms of environmental and human health. The study aimed at analyzing for selected metallic ions in Keana Salt Lake and sources of drinking water in Keana Salt Lake Community, so as to identify and determine the amount of heavy metals in comparison with WHO (World Health Organization) permissible limits. Heavy metals analyzed in the study includes Lead (mg/L), Cadmium (mg/L), Copper (mg/L), Iron (mg/L), Nickel (mg/L), Manganese (mg/L), Aluminum (mg/L), Zinc (mg/L), Cobalt (mg/L), Arsenic (mg/L) and Chromium (mg/L). Atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) was used to analyze five samples collected in triplicates from well water (WW), Salt Lake water (SLW) Filtrate from salt lake water (FSLW), non-motorized borehole (BH1) and motorized borehole (BH2) located within Keana community, Nasarawa state, Nigeria. Study findings indicate that while Cobalt was not detected in any of the water samples, mean concentration values for Zinc, Copper and Alumunium were within permissible limits set by WHO. Furthermore, mean concentration values for Manganese, Chromium, Iron, Nickel, Cadmium, Lead and Arsenic exceeded WHO permissible limits. Mean concentration levels of some heavy metals analyzed in the study shows that utilizing water in the study area may be hazardous to environmental health. The study recommends regular treatment of water from the study area before utilization by the populace.

Highlights

Salt lakes despite having high salinity, are fundamental to survival of people who live near them when there are no alternative water sources
Zinc concentrations identified in the water samples studied are significant in terms of location which is in line with what has been reported about zinc concentrations from the Great Salt Lake, USA [9]
Mean value of chromium in the water samples ranged from 0.038±0.001 mg/L in from salt lake water (FSLW) sample to 0.0630±0.333 mg/L in BH2 sample

Summary

Introduction

Salt lakes despite having high salinity, are fundamental to survival of people who live near them when there are no alternative water sources. Heavy metal refers to any metal and metalloid element that has a relatively high density (usually 5 gcm−3 or more) with atomic mass above 23 [2]. They are found widely in the earth’s crust and are non-biodegradable in nature [3]. Metal evaluation of samples collected from groundwater wells in the southern Salt lake region, USA shows that chromium, aluminum, nickel, copper and zinc had median concentrations values of 0.002 mg/L, 0.002 mg/L, 0.003 mg/L, 0.002 mg/L and 0.003 mg/L respectively while cadmium and lead were not detected in the metallic analysis [5]. Analysis of water samples collected from three lakes in Johor Bharu, Malaysia which were evaluated using

Methods

Results

Conclusion