Pollution

Surface water resources play a crucial role in potable water delivery to many communities in Ghana. They support recreational, agricultural, and industrial water needs. However, several interrelated factors of spatial and temporal variation impact on and control the quality of these water bodies. Due to lack of protection, surface water bodies are highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and anthropogenic activities. This study sought to evaluate the main factors influencing the hydrochemistry of the Pra, Ankobra, and Tano rivers of the south-western rivers system using statistical, spatial, and conventional hydrochemical plots. The results revealed high turbidity and TSS levels in the rivers reaching values of 4645 NTU and 3615 mg/l, respectively. Significant levels of Fe exceeding recommended WHO guideline level was also identified. The main hydrochemical facies in the rivers were Ca-HCO3 (47%) and Mg-HCO3 (44%), with relative abundance of the order Ca > Mg > Na > K for the cations and HCO3 > Cl > SO4 for anions. Precipitation, mineral dissolution in the soil zone, and anthropogenic activities, particularly artisanal mining, were identified as the main factors influencing the quality of these rivers. However, irrigation assessment shows that the rivers are of excellent quality for irrigation.

The majority of households in the town halls of Agbangnizoun and Za-Kpota do not have access to drinking water due to the non-existence of drinking water supply. Consequently, the communities of these two town halls use surface waters, traditional wells and cisterns to satisfy their daily needs without any prior treatment. This work was undertaken to assess the physico-chemical quality of these waters. Thus, over two successive years, twelve (12) rivers, eighteen (18) wells, twenty (20) cisterns and two (02) boreholes (witness samples) were sampled in the Districts of the two town halls. The physical parameters such as the pH, the temperature, the turbidity, the rate of dissolved solids (TDS) and the conductivity were measured in situ with a mobile multi-parameter device of the brand HANNA HI 9829 while the colour, the suspended matters (SM), the ammonium, nitrate, nitrite, phosphate and sulphate ions are measured in the laboratory by colourimetric method. The data collected were recorded in Excel and then treated with software R. The Student-Newman Keuls test with the significance level of 5% shows that surface waters are more polluted whereas well waters are highly mineralized. The waters consumed by the populations of Agbangnizoun and Za-kpota town halls do not respect drinking water standards.

Heavy metal copper is the third most widely used metal in industries next to aluminium and iron. It finds its use in various industries like electroplating industries, battery manufacture, smelting, ship building, electrical transmission, construction of transportation vehicles, construction industry etc. The permissible limit of copper in water for human consumption as per World Health Organisation (WHO) is 0.05 to 1 mg/lit. Beyond this limit, the presence of Cu (II) ions is carcinogenic and toxic to human health. Therefore, there is a need to remove copper from waste effluents before allowing it to enter into any water body. The present study deals with the removal of copper by adsorption on neem leaves (Azadirachta indica) in batch experiment, by low-cost and high-capacity removal of Cu(II) ions from wastewaters. The influence of contact time, adsorbent dosage, effect of pH of solution and temperature effect were studied. Adsorption mechanism is found to follow the ‘Freundlich’ adsorption isotherm, indicating a multi layer adsorption process. Percentage removal of Cu (II) ions is found to be 88.516% at pH 3 for 0.1gm of Neem Leaf powder (NLP) dosage. The results obtained from this study shows that Neem leaf powder is an effective and economical adsorbent for copper removal from industrial wastewater.

Tropospheric ozone is one of the key species in the atmosphere and it plays a vital role in the air quality, atmospheric chemistry, and climate change over a region. Being a secondary species produced from the photolysis of trace gases, ozone offers a good tracer to comprehend the atmospheric air quality. Economic liberalization in India began in early nineties which lead to a significant growth in industrial, energy and transport sectors in India. The advent of multinational industries in Indian cities could significantly increase the population. The rapid enhancement in industrial and anthropogenic activities in Indian cities could result a deterioration of air quality and this has influenced the rural areas as well. This work aims at the estimation of air quality in rural environment in Indian sub-continent before and after the economic liberalization in India. It shows an evidence of increase in tropospheric ozone over these hotspots lying along the coastal belt of the Arabian Sea which were mostly unpolluted prior to the period of liberalization.

Comparative study of levels of mercury in surface soil samples in gold and non-gold mining towns were conducted from Sikakrom of Kenyasi No. 1 and Dadiesoba of Asutsifi District in the Brong-Ahafo Region of Ghana. The mercury concentrations of acid digested dried samples were measured by Cold Vapour Atomic Absorption Spectrometry. Higher levels of T-Hg concentrations were found in surface soil samples at the sites with extensive small-scale “galamsey” mining activities than at the non small-scale “galamsey” mining sites. Levels of Hg in surface soil samples were in the range of 38.56 µg kg-1 to 93.34 µg kg-1 for the extensive small-scale “galamsey” mining sites at Sikakrom of Kenyasi No.1. The concentration levels of T-Hg in surface soil from all the sampling sites are in excess of the WHO tolerable limit of 0.001 µg/kg for soil. The concentration levels of total mercury at Dadiesoba were lower than the WHO tolerable limit of 0.001µg/kg. The influence of the off-shore sea breeze might have affected this observation. Hg levels obtained in this research were higher than the natural background levels of Hg. Obviously; Hg is a major metal pollutant at Sikakrom of Kenyasi No.1. Recovery and Repeatability test were done to check for the accuracy and reproducibility of the analytical method. Regression analysis on surface soil mercury concentrations showed proportionately less deposits at higher distances in 10 cm soil zone. In general, these findings suggest evidence of severe mercury pollution in Sikakrom of Kenyasi No. 1 in the Asutsifi District of the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana.

Air pollutants, including SO₂, H₂S , NO_X and TSP, were measured in Al-Hashimeya town in Zarqa Governorate, where there are three main sources contributing in different degrees to the pollution of air. These are Jordan Petroleum Refinery, Al-Hussein Thermal Power Station, and Al-samra Waste Water Treatment Plant. Data relating to pollution in Al-Hashimeya have been collected from all sources that had measured the level of pollution in this areaduring the period from 2005 to 2009 are presented. The effects of local meteorological conditions were studied by statistical analysis.
The concentration variations in air pollutants are closely related to those in local meteorological conditions. Both temperature and relative humidity have significant negative correlations, whereas wind speed has a significant positive correlation with these pollutants.

Availability, pollution and treatment of water are of major concern of present time. Many micro-organisms are capable for wastewater treatment. In the present study, feasibility of decolorization of dye contaminated effluents collected from different textile industries was examined using Aspergillus tamarii and Aspergillus flavus in batch and continuous reactor. Aspergillus flavus was found to be more efficient than Aspergillus tamarii to decolorize the effluents. Maximum decolorization of 85.3% was observed at optimized pH with 50% diluted effluent sample (ES1) using Aspergillus flavus (pH 4.5) as compared to 82.2% obtained using Aspergillus tamarii (pH 5). Chemical oxygen demand (COD) reduction has been observed to be 75% after decolorization of ES1 using Aspergillus flavus. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analyses strongly supported biosorption as well as biodegradation of dye during decolorization.

Chemical properties of groundwater resources were studied in the Kwahu South District of Ghana. The study used hydrochemical data employing a series of comprehensive data interpretation e.g. Bivariate plots, Schoeller and Piper diagram to obtain a better understanding of the system functioning. The physico-chemical parameters suggest that the groundwaters in the Kwahu South District are generally good for domestic use per World Health Organization (W.H.O) standards with the exception of boreholes from Nkyenenkyene (NKY and NKY 3) which have hydrogen sulphide problems. Stiff diagrams were superimposed on the map of the study area to display the area differences in water quality across the district. The following main hydrochemical processes were identified as factors controlling the chemistry of the groundwater system: dissolution, ion exchange, and reverse ion exchange. Three main hydrochemical facies were identified from the Piper diagram: Facies (I); Ca –HCO3, Facies (II); Na –HCO3 and Facies (III); Na–Cl. Three main hydrochemical groups were also identified by the Schoeller diagram: Group I, II, III. The groups identified by the Schoeller diagrams corresponded with the hydrochemical facies identified in the Piper Diagram respectively.

All living beings so made that we cannot live in isolation of our environment, our body are made up of all elements available in environment. And any disturbance in purity of environmental component can makes the hazard in our lives. It has posed a great problem to the existence of humans, plant, animal and other form of life on the earth although the prime support for the survival of human being is environment. The process of and side effect of environmental degradation may seems very slow which may not give effect in our life time but will make life of our own next generation miserable. Therefore now there is a need to increase awareness and understanding of the environmental along with responsible attitude toward the sustainable management of environment and natural resources of planet earth. The present study has delimited to study the level of environmental awareness regarding environmental components, services, pollution etc. among the rural and urban respondent of one of the district of Tamilnadu, India. Keywords: Environmental awareness, environmental components, services, pollution, rural and urban.

This paper analyzes aerosols in the Sahelian zone, particularly in Burkina Faso, based on in situ measurements of the AERONET network made from 1999 to 2006. Indeed, we characterize aerosols by studying their optical and microphysical parameters measured on the site of Ouagadougou (12.2° N, 1.4° W). Thus, several types of days were defined based on the daily averages of optical thicknesses observed. Therefore, cases of days with AOT values > 1 and possibly beyond 2.5 or 3 are associated with desert dust occurrences confirmed by the Angstrom coefficient(?440-870 < 0.5) and the single scattering albedo (SSA> 0.9) observed mainly in Winter (DJF) and then in Spring (MAM). These huge falls of mineral dust are due to the proximity of this zone with the Sahel, Burkina Faso being particularly located in the Sahel, as clearly shown by the back-trajectories of the air masses drawn at 300 m, 1.000 m and 3.000 m of altitude. These wind trajectories reveal the presence of desert aerosols in all periods, with an influence in Summer due to distant transport at high altitude, nearly 3.000 m, in thin dust, whereas in Winter and in Spring, dust is generated by low-level winds from the North and Northeast. However, mixed days corresponding to AOT values ? 0.5 and ?440-870 ? 0.5 are dominated by more scattering fine desert particles mixed with too much thin combustion aerosols. The combustion particles are due to transports from the Southern part of the country to the Gulf of Guinea, mainly in Winter, Spring and Autumn.