Heavy Metals Determination in the Rivers in Kuching City and Relationship of the Land-use Changes to the Heavy Metals Present in Water

• Main Author: Grace, Stephen
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) 2015
• Subjects: GE Environmental Sciences; QD Chemistry
• Online Access: http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/9415/1/Grace.pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/9415/

Water is a source of life, nowadays, it become scarcity due to the anthropogenic activities especially the heavy metals which has polluted the river and become harmful for humans health. A study on concentration of heavy metals of surface water was carried out in three selected land-use; shipping yard/industrial area, residential area and agriculture area. The in-situ data were recorded on-site and water samples were taken and analyzed ex-situ using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS).The result showed that the concentration of heavy metals higher in rivers namely Zn, Fe, As and Al within the range of overall mean of 0.016 mg/l - 0.081 mg/l, 0.196 mg/l - 0.439 mg/l, 0.145 mg/l - 0.397 mg/l and 0.236 mg/l - 0.340 mg/l respectively. The other elements, Pb found high in concentration in Station 1 maybe due to the usage of lead-containing oil in the shipping area.