Assessment of some heavy metals pollution in water and plants in agricultural land on the banks of the Euphrates River in Nasiriya city, Iraq

Abstract

The human health is affected by plants that grown in contaminated areas. Therefore, this research was done to estimate the heavy metals pollution in a part of the Euphrates River water, soil and plants for land on both sides of the river were collected. The area (Alasforeh) was located between the highway bridges. People in (Alasforeh) used the river water for irrigation. Ten samples of river water, 10 samples of soil and 10 other samples of dry-weight of plants such as Aplum graveolens, Hordeum vulgare, Medicago sativa and Raphanus sativus were used. The concentrations of some heavy metals like Pb, Cd, Ni and Zn were analyzed. The results showed that the concentration of Pb in irrigation water was 7.38 mg/L, which was higher than an acceptable level that mentioned in WHO reports. The Ni concentration of soil was high, it was 73, 60 and 53.2 mg/kg in A. graveolens, H. vulgare, and M. sativa, respectively. Concentration of heavy metals in the lower layers of the soil was more than surface layer. Concentrations of Cd were high in the M. sativa and A. graveolens plants, 0.608 and 0.325 mg/kg, respectively. Consequently the increasing of consumption for these contaminated plants by community could cause health problems in the future.