Evaluation of Four Anthropogenic Activity Impacts on Heavy Metal Quality of the Kumba River in the South West Region of Cameroon — Oak Academic Publishing
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Evaluation of Four Anthropogenic Activity Impacts on Heavy Metal Quality of the Kumba River in the South West Region of Cameroon
Institute of Agricultural Research for Development (IRAD), Yaoundé, Cameroon
,
Faculty of Agronomy and Agricultural Sciences (FASA), University of Dschang, Dschang, Cameroon
,
Faculty of Agronomy and Agricultural Sciences (FASA), University of Dschang, Dschang, Cameroon
,
Institute of Agricultural Research for Development (IRAD), Yaoundé, Cameroon
1 Institute of Agricultural Research for Development (IRAD), Yaoundé, Cameroon
2 Faculty of Agronomy and Agricultural Sciences (FASA), University of Dschang, Dschang, Cameroon
3 Faculty of Agronomy and Agricultural Sciences (FASA), University of Dschang, Dschang, Cameroon
4 Institute of Agricultural Research for Development (IRAD), Yaoundé, Cameroon
Anthropogenic activities have contributed to pollution of water bodies through deposition of diverse pollutants amongst which are heavy metals. These pollutants, which at times are above the maximum concentration levels recommended, are detrimental to the quality of the water, soil and crops (plant) with subsequent human health risks. The objective of the work was to evaluate the impacts of human-based activities on the heavy metal properties of surface water with focus on the Kumba River basin. Field observations, interviews, field measurements and laboratory analyses of different water samples enabled us to collect the different data. The results show four main human-based activities within the river basin (agriculture, livestock production, domestic waste disposal and carwash activities) that pollute surface water. Approximately 20.61 tons of nitrogen and phosphorus from agricultural activities, 156.48 tons of animal wastes, 2517.5 tons of domestic wastes and 1.52 tons of detergent from carwash activities were deposited into the river each year. A highly significant difference at 1% was observed between the upstream and downstream heavy metal loads in four of the five heavy metals tested except for copper that was not significant. Lead concentrations were highest in all the activities with an average of 2.4 mg∙L<sup>−</sup><sup>1</sup> representing 57.81%, followed by zinc with 1.596 mg∙L<sup>−</sup><sup>1</sup> (38.45%) and manganese with 0.155 mg∙L<sup>−</sup><sup>1</sup> (3.74%) for the different anthropogenic activities thus indicating that these activities highly lead to pollution of the Kumba River water. The level of zinc and manganese was significantly influenced at <i>ρ</i> 005 by anthropogenic activities though generally the variations were in the order: carwash (3.196 mg∙L<sup>−</sup><sup>1</sup>) < domestic waste disposal (3.347 mg∙L<sup>−</sup><sup>1</sup>) < agriculture (4.172 mg∙L<sup>−</sup><sup>1</sup>) < livestock (4.886 mg∙L<sup>−</sup><sup>1</sup>) respectively and leading to a total of 14.04 tons of heavy metal pollutants deposited each day.
KeywordsMetal PropertiesHuman-Based ActivitiesKumba River BasinSurface Water
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