Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

ESTIMATION OF THE CONCENTRATION OF SOME HEAVY METALS IN EUPHRATES RIVER IN ALMUTHANA PROVINCE, IRAQ

Hussain Ali Shaheed

Abstract

This study involved the estimation of the concentration of 5 heavy metals which are manganese, zinc, copper, cadmium and lead in the waters of Euphrates River in Almuthana province, south of Iraq. The samples were collected during April of 2016, 2017 and April 2018 where the concentration of these elements was estimated in the standard methods using Atomic Absorption spectrophotometer technique, the concentration of manganese, zinc, copper, cadmium and lead were 0.0397, 0.0264, 0.0716, 0.0071 and 0.0913 ppm respectively for samples collected in April 2016 and 0.0235, 0.0059, 0.0088, 0.0011, 0.0322 ppm for April 2017 and 0.0264, 0.0052, 0.0248, 0.0012,0.0242 ppm for April 2018. This study showed that the concentrations of each of manganese copper and zinc were less than the standard concentrations set by the World Health Organization Data in all samples, while the concentrations of cadmium were higher than WHO in April 2016 sample but in 2017 and April 2018 the concentration were less than WHO standard, in the other hand concentration of lead were higher than those standards in all samples.