Monitoring and assessing water pollution in Mariut Lake, Egypt / Neven Gamal Tawfik Rostom ; Supervised Y. M. Issa , A. A. Shalaby

Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Science - Department of Analytical Chemistry

Water pollution has become a growing threat to human society and natural ecosystems in recent decades, increasing the need to better understand the spatial and temporal variabilities of pollutants within aquatic systems. Mariut Lake is one of the most heavily populated urban areas in Egypt and in the world. A total of 22 samples were collected and analyzed for determining the concentrations of chromium (Cr), manganese (Mn), iron (Fe), cobalt (Co), nickel (Ni), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) in winter time 2014. Inverse distance weighting analyst tools were used to explore, analyze the spatial distribution and mapping of the heavy metal concentrations. The results revealed that all of heavy metals concentrations matched with the allowable limits to be discharged in marine environment as prescribed in Egyptian law except of Ni metal which exceeded the allowable limits. The results illustrated that the highest concentration of Mn and Fe were distributed in the upper north eastern parts of the studied stations, this may be due to human{u2019}s activities and industrial area. While the eastern region has high concentrations of Pb, Ni, Cr and Co due to El-Kalaa drain discharges. However, the western part of the study area has high concentration of Zn and Cu due to El-Ommum drain discharges. The study concluded that the accurate spatial pattern of heavy metals could improve our understanding of possible sources, controlling factors and involving processes which are essential for monitoring and remediation of the contaminant sites in the lake

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