GEOCHEMICAL CHARACTERISTIC OF HEAVY METAL CONTAMINATION IN SURFACE SEDIMENTS ALONG THE UPPER AYEYARWADDY RIVER BANK OFMYITKYINA, KACHIN STATE
Abstract
- Ayeyarwaddy River is the country’s largest river and Myanmar’s most important commercial waterway. Gold mining is taking place in the headwaters of the Ayeyarwaddy, and sewage from the mining sites contaminates the rivers. The main objective of the present study is to assess heavy metal contamination in sediments from Ayeyarwaddy River. Surface sediments (0-60 cm) from 4 stations along river bank near Myitkyina region were sampled for metal concentration. The concentration of metals (mg/kg) was as follows: 0-670 Cr; 1000-7020 Mn; 4.28-15.99 (%) Fe; 0.446-1.445 (%) Ti and 0-920 Ni. The degree of sediment contaminations were computed using an enrichment factor (EF), geo-accumulation index (Igeo) and pollution load index (PLI). In this work, average EF of the heavy metals were between 0 and 5, therefore the river sediments were between no enrichment and moderate enrichment. The average Igeo values of these metals except Cr, Mn and Ni were less than zero (Igeo< 0), that the river sediments were not polluted by these metals. Therefore, the surface sediments are uncontaminated to moderately contaminated with Cr, Mn and Ni.PLI value of sampling point C was 2.79 indicating that Ayeyarwaddy River was polluted with the heavy metals. The PLI values of other sampling points were greater than 1 (PLI > 1) which would indicate deterioration of site quality. The study revealed that on the basis of computed indexes, the river is classified uncontaminated to moderately contaminated.
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Year
- 2020
Author
-
Seint Seint Aye
Subject
- Physics
Publisher
- Myanmar Academy of Arts and Science (MAAS)