Makia M. Al-Hejuje¹ , Najah A. Hussain¹ , Hamid T. Al-Saad²

1 Department of Ecology, College of Sciences,University of Basrah, Iraq
2 College of Marine Science, University of Basrah, Iraq
Author    Correspondence author
International Journal of Marine Science, 2017, Vol. 7, No. 35   doi: 10.5376/ijms.2017.07.0035
Received: 08 Aug., 2017    Accepted: 29 Aug., 2017    Published: 09 Sep., 2017

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Al-Hejuje M.M., Hussain N.A., and Al-Saad H.T., 2017, Applied heavy metals pollution index (HPI) as a water pollution indicator of Shatt Al-Arab river, Basrah-Iraq, International Journal of Marine Science, 7(35): 353-360 (doi: 10.5376/ijms.2017.07.0035)

Five stations were selected at the middle part of Shatt Al-Arab river to determine the monthly variation of seven eco-toxic elements (Cd⁺², Cu⁺², Fe⁺², Mn⁺², Ni⁺², Pb⁺² and Zn⁺²) concentrations and their distribution as dissolved and particulate (exchangeable and residual) phases during the low tide period from December, 2012 to November, 2013. Heavy Metals Pollution Index (HPI) was applied to determine the pollution of Shatt Al-Arab water. Results showed that the concentrations of the previous metals as dissolved phase were (3.01; 2.35; 89.45; 4.48; 9.51; 43.67 and 7.58) µg/l, respectively, whereas in the exchangeable phase of particulate were (48.56; 53.22; 8968.76; 1748.58; 120.14; 271.52; 243.16) µg/g dry weight respectively and in the residual phase of particulate were (57.59; 88.68; 21571.74; 365.90; 163.39; 388.44 and 219.42) µg/g dry weight respectively. The results indicated that mean HPI values were found to be above the critical pollution index value of 100. HPI values for the presence study were ranged from 130.41 to 196.97 referred to polluted water caused by the world impermissible values of dissolved Pb, Fe and Cd.

Shatt Al-Arab water; HPI; Heavy metals pollution; Indices