Assessment of Human Health Risk Due to Accumulation of Heavy Metal in African Green Leafy Vegetable Irrigated by Waste Water in Arusha Municipality

Pallangyo, Naimani Sarikiel (2019) Assessment of Human Health Risk Due to Accumulation of Heavy Metal in African Green Leafy Vegetable Irrigated by Waste Water in Arusha Municipality. Masters thesis, The Open University of Tanzania.

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Abstract

The present study was conducted to assess the heavy metals (Cu, Cd, Pb, and Cr) concentrations in irrigated water, the concentration of the given metal from soil and vegetables (Amaranths sp and Ipomoea sp), as a result of wastewater irrigation around Arusha Municipal wastewater stabilization pond were determined using Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (FAAS). The results obtained from the edible parts of sampled vegetables (Amaranths sp and Ipomoea sp) in this study, showed concentration of Cr, Cd, Pb, and Cu was (1.40, 4.21), (309.87, 152.60), (0.50, 0.48), (281.69, 248.54) mg /Kg, respectively. Where as, concentration in the wastewater samples (mg /Kg) were Cr (0.32), Cd (607.61), Pb (0.15) and Cu (237.82). Similarly, concentrations (mg/Kg) of the metals in the soil samples were found to be 0.65, 595.90, 48.00 and 234.52 for Cr, Cd, Pb and Cu, respectively. The THQ values showed that Cd was 225.121and 457.132, Pb was 0.7081 and 0.7081, Cr was 0.0014 and 0.0041, and Cu was 9.17 and 10.39 for Amaranths sp and Ipomoea sp respectively. This study has shown that soil quality is considerably influenced by effluent discharge from the considered industries, household, hospitals. The government intervention is needed to monitor the effluents prior to discharge into receiving surroundings. Also the concerned official bodies to take necessary precaution measures for cleaning the polluted factory effluents prior to discharge.

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