STUDY OF DISTRIBUTION OF SOME HEAVY METALS IN THE SOILOF BASRA CITY- SOUTH OF IRAQ

Abstract

The Objective of the present work is to estimate the concentration levels of some
heavy metals (Cd, Co, Cr, Fe, Ni and Pb) in the soil of Basra city- south of Iraq and
indicating to the probable pollution resources with these heavy metals. To achieve
this aim (35) soil samples were collected from all over Basra city as well as
comparing the concentrations of the heavy metals in soil of Basra city with their
concentrations in soils taken from (6) rural regions (Diayla, Haditha, Sinjar, Kirkuk-
Musol road, Basra-Kut road, south of Emmara city) which are far away from the
sources of pollution. Soil samples includes( industrial, commercial, residential and
agricultural) areas (one sample for each area) with a depth(5-15) cm. preparation of samples after collecting for measuring by atomic absorption
spectrophotometer(AAS) was conducted. After getting the results, comparing with
the international limits for heavy metals in soil was done. Then contour maps were
made that revealed the distribution of studied heavy metals in the Basra city.
From the results we can found that most of heavy metals (Pb, Ni, Cr and Cd)
increasing to the west of Basra city because of its closeness from the petroleum
establishments like oil refinery of Al-Sha’eiba because the industrial waste of these
industries contains high concentration of some heavy metals. There is also
increasing in the concentration of some studied metals soil in the middle of Basra
city especially Al-Jazzaer area which consider as a commercial area suffering from
high traffic motion for automobiles and vehicles, like(Pb) as a by-product released
from combustion of fuel due to the addition of (tetraethyl lead) to fuel as antiknocking
agent. Then its cause an increasing of (Pb) in the atmosphere then
precipitate on the soil, whereas decreasing of studied heavy metals was found to the
east of Basra city which is consider as an agricultural area and have well vegetarian
cover and far away from the industries establishments.