Determination of the Toxicological Risk of Urban Waste from the City of Uvira Dumped into the North-Western Coast in Lake Tanganyika (Democratic Republic of Congo)

Abstract

This study focuses on determining the toxicological risks of urban waste from the city of Uvira, discharged into Lake Tanganyika, on the surrounding population. Volatile organic compounds were measured in a variety of solid waste matrices, including inorganic micropollutants in wastewater and fish. The concentrations of Hg and Pb in the lake were found to be 1.21 and 1.42 μg/L respectively and between 0.83 to 18.36 μg/L of Hg and 8.25 to 670 μg/L of Pb, at the collector outlet. The presence of trace metallic elements, such as Cr, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Sb, Hg and Pb, were detected at high concentrations compared to the WHO standard. An ecotoxicology experiment herein on wastewater samples showed lethal pollutant concentrations of the order of 0.0055 mL/mL which killed at least 50% of fish (LC50), confirming the toxicity of the wastewater. These potentially harmful effluents also contain volatile organic compounds originating in high concentration from the pharmaceutical discharges of the general Uvira hospital, in particular: toluene, ethylbenzene, m-xylene/p-xylene, o-xylene and chloroform in higher concentrations compared to the norm. Other components such as benzene, bromodichloroethane and 1,1-dichloroethane were found to be present, but at a concentration below 0.05 ppb. A variety of trace organics can be suspected to be present as well.