Potential risk and source distribution of groundwater contamination by mercury in district Swabi, Pakistan: Application of multivariate study

Seema Anjum Khattak, Abdur Rashid (), Muhammad Tariq, Liaqat Ali, Xubo Gao (), Muhammad Ayub and Asif Javed
Additional contact information
Seema Anjum Khattak: University of Peshawar
Abdur Rashid: China University of Geosciences
Muhammad Tariq: University of Peshawar
Liaqat Ali: University of Peshawar
Xubo Gao: China University of Geosciences
Muhammad Ayub: Hazara University
Asif Javed: Bahria University Islamabad

Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, 2021, vol. 23, issue 2, No 52, 2279-2297

Abstract: Abstract This study identified mercury (Hg) concentration in groundwater of District Swabi, Pakistan. The objective of the study was to find geochemistry, health risk and source distribution pattern. Therefore, groundwater (n = 38) were collected from three hydrological environments, viz. shallower (10–20) m, middle depth (25–45) m and deeper depth (50–90) m aquifers. The water samples were tested for Hg, and results showed in the form of lowest concentration (0.16 µg/L) and highest concentration (2.0 µg/L) were recorded in deeper and shallower aquifers. Thus, shallower aquifer has been more contaminated than deeper aquifer. Most groundwater samples (68.4%) exceeded the guidelines of Hg (1.0 µg/L) recommended by WHO. The results of Hg exceeded WHO recommended level of 1.0 µg/L. Similarly, the PLI and GRQ also showed moderate pollution of Hg in the groundwater samples. The study showed that the inhabitants of the area may be exposed to several health problems. The GRQ technique revealed that the drinking groundwater sources with relatively high concentration of Hg are extremely unfit for drinking purposes.

Keywords: Mercury in groundwater; Pollution load index; Source apportionment; Health risk assessment; District Swabi (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10668-020-00674-5 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:endesu:v:23:y:2021:i:2:d:10.1007_s10668-020-00674-5

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/10668

DOI: 10.1007/s10668-020-00674-5

Access Statistics for this article

Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development is currently edited by Luc Hens

More articles in Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().