Abstract
Zambia’s Kafue River receives wastes from various sources, resulting in metal pollution. This study determined the degree of contamination of 13 metals (Al, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Se, Cd, Hg and Pb) in Kafue River sediment and the associated ecological risks at six sites in three different seasons. The level of contamination for most metals showed significant site and seasonal differences. The contamination factor and pollution load index indicated that concentrations of most metals particularly copper (Cu), cobalt (Co), manganese (Mn) and arsenic (As) were very high at sites within the Copperbelt mining area. The geoaccumulation index showed an absence of anthropogenic enrichment with Cd and Hg at all the study sites and extreme anthropogenic enrichment with Cu at sites in the Copperbelt mining area. Potential ecological risk showed that Cu and As were likely to cause adverse biological effects to aquatic organisms in the Copperbelt mining region of the Kafue River.
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Acknowledgements
Authors are grateful to the laboratory technical staff at the University of Warwick (especially Mr. Philip Ashton) and the University of Zambia (Mr. Joseph Ndebe, Mr. Ladsluv Moonga and Mr. John Chilundu). Furthermore, we are grateful to the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission (ZMCN-2013-352), University of Warwick, International Foundation for Science (IFS) number A/5212-1 and University of Zambia for sponsoring this work.
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M’kandawire, E., Choongo, K., Yabe, J. et al. Sediment Metal Contamination in the Kafue River of Zambia and Ecological Risk Assessment. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 99, 108–116 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-017-2089-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-017-2089-3