NATURAL SCIENCES

Journal of fundamental
and
applied researches

Detect risk zone of heavy metals contaminationin water of the lake Mariut, Alexandria, Egypt

2013. №2, pp. 72-82

Moataz Mohammed Khalifa - post-graduate student, Astrakhan State University, 1Shaumyan Sq., Astrakhan, 414000, Russian Federation, m_khalifa@yahoo.com

Kondrashin Ruslan V.  - Ph.D. (Geography), Assistant Professor, Astrakhan State University, 1Shaumyan Sq., Astrakhan, 414000, Russian Federation, estnauki2009@rambler.ru

Due to rapidly increasing population, Egypt has been listed among the ten countries of the world that are threatened by the need of water by the year 2025. Such a situation of water shortages necessitates seeking new water supplies for agriculture activities, which consume about 86.3 % of water supply in Egypt. In this context, transitional water bodies in the country gain special relevance. Lake Mariut not only represents a possible future reservoir of treated waste waters, but could also become a much more important source to meet the demand of increasing population. But, the Lake Mariut suffers from almost all possible environmental problems and to quite an extreme degree. All these inputs introduce in the Lake huge amounts of inorganic and organic toxic substances, from different forms of nitrogen, phosphorus, heavy metals, pesticides, and pathogens. Urban expansion from the densely populated Alexandria and the uncontrolled deposition of solid waste, complete a very complicated and distressing environmental panorama for Lake Mariut making of it the most polluted one of Egypt. In this context, the study was undertaken to assess the present status of heavy metals pollution in this lake. The results showed that. the high risk zone of heavy metals were found in the south-east and north-west side of the main basin and the low risk zone were found in the remaining basins. This means that the lake was polluted with these metals mainly due to the discharged of water from the Qalaa drain and west wastewater treatment plants. This has led to accumulation of pollutants at the north-eastern side of the lake. The contribution of metals from this lake to the Mediterranean Sea via the Umum drain has been estimated.

Key words: Pollution,geoecology,ecology,heavy metals,Lead,Iron,Copper,Cadmium,Chromium,lake Mariut,Egypt