Babol Noshirvani University of Technology

Faculty of Civil Engineering

Lesson project
Marine environment

research title
Heavy Metals in the Sediments of Euphrates
River, Iraq

Student's name
Hussein Alkhazaali

Supervised by
Dr. Ozeair Abessi

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ABSTRACT

The study is based on reviewing a group of researches that assessed the level of
pollution in the Euphrates River and deposited with heavy metals, as well as researching
the sources of those minerals.The studys shows a difference in the concentrations in the
different sections of the river, and the diversity of the sources of these minerals, including
natural ones such as the nature of the rocks through which the riverbed passes, the
melting of the minerals of these rocks and the groundwater basins that flow into them,
washing the soil during rains and torrents in the river basin. lastly due to activities
Humanity close to the river bed, such as industrial and agricultural activities, and the
disposal of liquid municipal waste. The studys also showed the effect of the seasons of
the year on the concentration of these elements due to rain, heat and evaporation of the
same testing stations. The studys revealed that there is a difference in the concentration
of some elements in the different sections of the river, as well as some concentrations of
the elements exceeding the critical limits, which requires an assessment of the level of
pollution and the discovery of the source.

Keywords: Euphrates sediment pollution, Euphrates heavy metals, Pollution of the

Euphrates River.

1- Introduction

Heavy metals These are the metals that have a relatively high density, atomic
number, or atomic mass. It is toxic when present in relatively low concentrations. That
the concentration of these elements in rivers and their sediments does not depend on the
type of rocks in the river basin only, but that human activities affect the water greatly. As
the sources of these elements result from human activities such as industry,
transportation, extraction, cultivation and wastewater, which ultimately lead to pollution.
Contamination with heavy metallic elements is one of the most important secretions of
the industrial revolution. The dangers of this phenomenon have been exacerbated in
recent decades after a number of Japanese citizens died due to eating fish contaminated
with mercury. Infecting others with diseases as a result of contamination of the drinking
water they use with cadmium. And that most studies confirmed the existence of a close
relationship between the concentrations of heavy elements in the blood serum or cells of
the tissues of living organisms and the occurrence of cancerous diseases and various
other diseases called deficiency diseases as the decrease or increase in the concentrations
of these elements from the normal rate indicates the presence of the disease as a cause or
consequence. In Iraq, many studies have dealt with heavy metals pollution. It studied the
heavy elements in the water of the Euphrates River and its sediments and the aquatic life
within it. Six heavy elements are studied: cadmium, nickel, lead, zinc, manganese and
copper in three sections of the Euphrates River inside Iraq. The results showed significant
and seasonal differences in the concentrations in the leachate. The highest concentration

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was in plankton and less than in sediments, with clear local changes during the study
periods. While cadmium scored the lowest concentration. Four aquatic plants with high
manganese and zinc content were also identified in the Euphrates. In our research we will
review some previous studies related to heavy metals pollution of the Euphrates River,
levels of pollution, sources of this pollution and what results from it.

2- Study Area

The Euphrates River Fig.1 is one of the most important rivers in the world beside the
Tigris River. It stems from the highlands of Turkey. After passing through Syria, the
Euphrates River enters Iraq at Al-Qaim. The river lies through a passage into Iraq, equal
to 1000 kilometers. The climate of Iraq is hot and dry in the summer, when the
temperature is brought back up to 43 degrees Celsius at night, and it drops at night to 26
degrees Celsius. Winter in Iraq is cold and rainy. The annual rainfall is estimated at 154
mm, but it ranges between 100 mm in the central plain and the southern desert, and 1200
mm in the north and northeast of the country. The river inside Iraq can be divided into
three sections for study, the first is western Iraq, which is the region that lies from the city
of Al-Qaim (the place where the river enters Iraqi lands) until it enters the city of
Baghdad, where the second section begins, which is the central region of Iraq, until it
enters the city of Samawah, the third section in the south Iraq until the Euphrates meets
the Tigris River in Basra.

Fig.1 Map of the Euphrates River

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 3- A review of the background of the subject

The studies that we discuss in our research showed that the Euphrates River (river
sediments and aquatic life) is contaminated with heavy metals in all its parts, as indicated
in the introduction, with varying proportions and in different concentrations, and the
influence of natural and human factors was evident through studies where it appeared in
the study (Al-Bassam and Al-Mukhtar, 2008). A difference in the concentrations of most
of the heavy metals in the three river breaks, and an increase in the concentrations of
minerals belonging to the rocks at the source and course of the river was observed in the
higher areas in Turkey and Syria, and their concentration decreases from north to south of
these elements chromium, nickel, cadmium, chromium and lead, which come from
melting riverbed rocks. Its tributaries washed the rain to the valleys near the river. (Jawad
A.,1977) also made a determination of the areas of heavy metals in the sediments of the
Euphrates and the Tigris and suggested the type of rocks for the heavy metals in their
sediments and divided the river basin into regions based on the distribution of heavy
metals in the river sediments. It is necessary to update the information on the distribution
of these minerals in the sediments of the Euphrates River within the ongoing research to
study the Euphrates River basin. These studies contribute to explaining the concentrations
of heavy elements in the river’s sediments and identifying their sources, as shown in
Table1 his findings, (Al-Bassam And al-Mukhtar, 2008) from the concentration of heavy
elements in the study areas from north to south. Where their studies focused on the effect
of the source and course of the river rocks on the level of heavy element concentrations in
river sediments. Either in other studies for specific areas in a specific section of the
course of the Euphrates River. (Al-Laheeb and Abdul-Jabbar, 2016) a study was
conducted to measure the effect of some heavy elements and their effect on the water of
the Euphrates River and thus the aquatic life and river sediments between October 2012
and July 2013. A difference in the concentration of lead and cadmium, as shown in
Table 2 and Table 3. during the seasons of the year, as the concentration decreased at the
end of the winter season, and they attributed this to the increase in rain. In the same
study, an increase in the concentration of cadmium and lead was observed in the city of
Ramadi after the industrial center, due to the liquid wastes that are discharged into the
river without prior treatment, such as the manufacture of agricultural fertilizers, dyes and
detergents, where it was found that the concentration of cadmium ion is (0.006 mg /L),
while the permissible limits are (0.005 mg/L) according to Iraqi specifications (Central
Organization for Standardization and Quality Control, 1996).

The results of another study conducted near the Nassiriya power station after the station's
cooling water drainage section (Hussein et al., 2012) showed that what is discarded from
cooling water led to an increase in the concentrations of some heavy elements, as the
results were compared with places outside the impact of polluting sources on a river,
including Drainers that bring in agricultural fertilizers, pesticides, industrial cities,

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slaughterhouses, and others that bring municipal pollutants. Table 4. The effect of
pollution with these elements on the neighborhoods that live in the river and then to the
person who deals with the river directly through drinking water, in which the river is a
source of raw water, or through feeding, is clearly evident. The study (Balasim et al.,
2013) has shown Concentrations of some heavy elements in the guts and muscles of fish
in a river polluted with heavy elements in Iraq. Laboratory tests of water, fish and
sediments showed that the concentrations of heavy metals (cadmium, zinc and
manganese) in the tissues and muscles of fish are higher than in water and lower than in
sediments.

Table1 concentrations of the gravitational elements (ppm) and some heavy metals
and carbonates (Al-Bassam and Al-Mukhtar 2008)

Table2 Monthly and site changes of lead ions mg / l in the studied sites in Ramadi
city(Al-Laheeb and Abdul-Jabbar, 2016).
Station7 Station6 Station5 Station4 Station3 Station2 Station1 Stations

months
0.045 0.032 0.027 0.021 0.032 0.05 0.011 Oct.
0.032 0.009 0.009 0.022 0.01 0.031 0.021 Nov.
0.021 0.049 0.054 0.007 0.065 0.06 0.009 Dec.
0.008 0.007 0.009 0.051 0.03 .0.02 0.009 Jan.
0.45 0.09 0.72 0.86 0.09 0.27 0.27 Feb.
0.54 0.45 0.09 0.72 0.09 0.63 0.09 Mar.
0.45 0.72 0.87 0.63 0.45 0.18 0.54 Jun.
0.1 0.07 0.09 0.21 0.08 0.09 0.09 Jul.
0.205 0.178 0.233 0.315 0.105 0.292 0.13 Aug.

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 Table 3 Monthly and site changes of Cadmium ions mg / l in the studied sites in
Ramadi city(Al-Laheeb and Abdul-Jabbar, 2016).
Station7 Station6 Station5 Station4 Station3 Station2 Station1 Stations

months
0.0006 0.0009 0.0009 0.0008 0.0009 0.0008 0.0009 Oct.
0.001 0.0009 0.0009 0.0009 0.0008 0.0009 0.0007 Nov.
0.001 0.001 0.001 0.001 0.004 0.001 0.003 Dec.
0.003 0.003 0.004 0.003 0.005 0.004 0.005 Jan.
0.0045 0.0045 0.0045 0.0045 0.0045 0.0009 0.0045 Feb.
0.0013 0.0009 0.0013 0.0009 0.0045 0.0022 0.0018 Mar.
0.0018 0.0009 0.0045 0.0045 0.0009 0.0018 0.0009 Jun.
0.0013 0.0009 0.0008 0.0009 0.0008 0.0009 0.0009 Jul.
0.0018 0.0016 0.0022 0.0020 0.0026 0.0015 0.0022 Aug.

Table 4 Heavy element rates for the five Euphrates sediments sites in the city of
Nasiriya during two year 2010 and 2009 (Station No. 1 outside the pollutants
impact comparison station(Hussein et al., 2012))

4- summary and Conclusion

Heavy metals may be present in a variety of forms in water and sediments, and they
may be part of compounds, or in the form of complex or simple compounds. Or they exist
in the form of ions, which are in three states in the aquatic environment, heavy elements
dissolved in water, particles in water, or heavy elements in sediments. One of the most
important sources of pollution with heavy elements are human sources (industrial liquid

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discharges, agricultural drainage into rivers, and municipal liquid wastes) as well as
natural sources that depend on the rocks of the riverbed and the nature of the valleys that
the river passes through and phosphate rocks. The Euphrates River showed high levels of
pollution, especially with lead and cadmium elements. These studies are suggested.

1. Periodic analysis to assess the water quality in the Euphrates.

2. Conducting analyzes of agricultural drainage discards to find out the quantities of

heavy metals imported into the Euphrates River from these minerals.

3. Monitoring the liquid discharges into the river from industrial sources and sewage
water on the river basin, monitoring the level of treatment of this water before its
disposal, and imposing strict environmental restrictions on human activities near rivers.

4. Rationalize the use of phosphate fertilizers agricultural pesticides as much as possible.

5- References

1- Al-Bassam Khaldoun and Al-Mukhtar Lama,(2008) Heavy metals in sediments of

the Euphrates River in Iraq. Iraqi Journal of Geology and Mining Vol / 4 Issue / 1
Year 2008 Page 29-41
2- Jawad Ali,(1977). Heavy mineral provinces of the Recent sediments of the
Euphrates – Tigris basin. Jour.Geol. Soc. Iraq, Vol.10, p. 33 – 46.
3- Al-Lahibi Diaa and Abdul-Jabbar Riyadh,(2016) The concentrations of some
valuable elements in the waters of the Euphrates River, east of Ramadi. Tikrit
Journal of Pure Sciences 21/7/2016.
4- Central Agency for Standardization and Quality Control. Iraqi specifications for
drinking water. No. 417 of (1996).
5- Hussein A. Jawad and Naghmash Razak and Khathi Muhammad,(2012) A study
of the concentrations of some heavy elements in the soils adjacent to the Euphrates
in the city of Nasiriyah, Al-Qadisiyah Journal for Pure Sciences Volume 17 Issue
2 (2012)
6- Balasim M. Halah and Al-Azzawi N. Muhammad and Rabee M. Adel,(2013)
Assessment of pollution with some heavy metals in water, sediments and Barbus
xanthopterus fish of the Tigris River–Iraq. Iraqi Journal of Science, 2013, Vol 54,
No.4, pp:813-822.