Authors : Sharifah Nadzirah Binti Wan Hamid, Bellona Joseph, Mathressa Mathews and Shirley Shireano Anak Karl
Abstract: Agriculture is one of the most important economic activities and it is essential to sustain livehood. However, this agriculture activities give big impacts to the environmental as it use pesticide, insecticide and fertilizer that contain heavy metals and affecting the water quality. In Bau Singai, the farming of pepper is still one of the sources of the villagers for income generation. Thus, fertilizer is one of the necessity for the plant growth where the villager will use a few types of fertilizer. The heavy metals content in the fertilizers, black pepper plant and river in the villagers were determined. The samples of fertilizer and black pepper were taken from 4 differents places of villages which are Kampung Sudoh, Kampung Apar, Kampung Bobak and Kampung Atas whereas the water sample were taken from Kampung Atas, Kampung Daun and Kampung Bobak. The concentration of heavy metals was analyzed by using Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS) using wet digestion method for fertilizers, black pepper and water samples. The water quality parameters tested via. In-situ were pH, temperature, turbidity and Dissolved Oxygen (DO) and Total Dissolved Solids (TDS). While for ex-situ measurements were Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Total Suspended Solids (TSS), Phosphorus reactive (PO43–), Nitrate (NO3–) and ammoniacal nitrogen (NH3–N). The estimated intake of Ni, Cu, Fe and Cd from black pepper were within the WHO tolerable intake. The Water Quality Index (WQI) at Kampung Atas is 80 with status of slightly polluted (Class II), Kampung Daun is 86 with status of clean (Class II) and Kampung Bobak is 78 with status of slightly polluted (Class II). For black pepper and fertilizer the concentration is within WHO tolerable intake. As for heavy metals in water, Pb have exceed the permissible limit in river at Kampung Atas.
Sharifah Nadzirah Binti Wan Hamid, Bellona Joseph, Mathressa Mathews and Shirley Shireano Anak Karl, 2019. Water Quality Assessment of Rivers and Heavy Metal Analysis of Small Scale Black Pepper Farm in Singai Area, Bau. Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences, 14: 10018-10022.