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eISSN: 2083-5906
ISSN: 1230-1485
ISSN: 1230-1485
ORIGINAL RESEARCH
An Integrated Approach to Evaluate Potentially
Toxic Elements Contamination in Groundwater
Systems Proximate to Urban Dumpsites
1
Department of Environmental Sciences, the University of Haripur, 22600-Haripur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
2
Abdullah Alrushaid Chair for Earth Science Remote Sensing Research, Geology and Geophysics Department,
King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, 11451 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Submission date: 2025-03-02
Final revision date: 2025-04-21
Acceptance date: 2025-06-27
Online publication date: 2025-09-15
Corresponding author
Muhamamad Ayaz Khan
Department of Environmental Sciences, the University of Haripur, 22600-Haripur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
Department of Environmental Sciences, the University of Haripur, 22600-Haripur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
KEYWORDS
municipal solid waste disposal sitegroundwaterheavy metalspollution indexhazard indexKhyber Pakhtunkhwa
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
This study was conducted to investigate potentially toxic elements (PTE) contamination and health
risk of groundwater in selected municipal solid waste (MSW) disposal sites of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,
Pakistan, where a large number of local communities are living near the disposal sites. A total
of 30 surface and groundwater samples were collected from MSW disposal sites in Abbottabad, Bannu,
and Peshawar. The collected samples were analyzed for physicochemical parameters such as pH,
electrical conductivity (EC), and PTE, including cadmium (Cd), manganese (Mn), copper (Cu), nickel
(Ni), and lead (Pb). Results indicated that mean pH values (7.05±0.26, 7.14±0.17, and 6.98±0.12) were
found within the acceptable limits (6.5-8.5) specified by National Environmental Quality Standards
(NEQS) and World Health Organization (WHO). Mean concentrations of PTE were within NEQS and
WHO limits, except for nickel (Ni) (1.88±0.15, 0.52±0.07, and 2.02±0.12 mg L-1), which exceeded the
NEQS and WHO limit of 0.02 mg L-1 in all samples. Similarly, manganese (Mn) (0.56±0.07 mg L-1)
exceeded the limit set by NEQS and WHO (0.5 mg L-1) in the groundwater samples of the Bannu
MSW disposal site. Multivariate analysis indicated that the PTE contamination of the groundwater of
the selected MSW disposal sites was anthropogenic. The pollution index (PI) values (PI ≥ 100) of Mn
and Ni indicated very high pollution at individual levels, while collectively, based on heavy metals
pollution index (HPI) values (HPI ≥ 200), the groundwater of all the selected MSW disposal sites
was found highly polluted. Whereas the hazard index (HI) values (HI ≥ 5) suggested adverse health
effects. It was concluded that the groundwater of all the MSW disposal sites was highly polluted with
heavy metals, particularly Ni and Mn, thus posing a high health risk to local communities living near
the MSW disposal sites.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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