Abstract

This study chose to detect some of the hazardous chemical pollutants that had not been dealt with before. It aims to conduct a geographical analysis and environmental assessment of these pollutants in terms of their presence and anticipated impact on the environment and public health. During the year 2018, 20 water samples were collected from different sampling stations on the Shatt al-Arab River and its canals (Maqal, Jubaylah, Rubat, Khandk, Ashar, and Khorah) in Basra. These samples were examined using the Spectrophotometric Analysis, to be more accurate.The results show the occurrence of contamination with some hazardous chemicals such as cyanide, fluoride, organic nitrogen, ammonia and ammonium, in addition to a significant increase in the salinity concentration (represented by the electrical conductivity index EC). Although some of these parameters were within safe limits, as in cyanide and fluoride, they exceed the environmental standard in some cases, and that their existence, even to a small extent, is a dangerous guide. As for pollution of ammonia and ammonium, it was remarkably high, especially in the studied canals. Several sources are involved in the occurrence of this pollution, such as sanitation, domestic sewage, commercial, municipal, industrial and agricultural wastewaters, as well as natural factors such as lack of water input and poor hydrologic exchange of studied canals.Some chemical processes contribute to determining the fate of these pollutants in the environment and their transformation from one form to another. The presence of studied pollutants causes various problems such as salinization, poisoning, microbial infection and harmful algal bloom. These problems make the reliability of water use at risk, which requires immediate advanced wastewater treatment.KeyWords :Geographical Analysis, Hazardous Chemical Pollutants, Shatt al-Arab River, Canals, Basra City, Spectrophotometric Analysis.

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The article was added to IASJ on 2021-01-10

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