Surface water quality in palm oil plantation

Abstract

River water that directly connected to palm oil plantation activity has been analysed for concentration of Zn, Pb and Cu and its physicochemical parameters. The samples were collected from 12 sampling points along the river in which located in Jerantut District in Pahang, Malaysia. The metal concentration was determined using Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP – OES) in triplicates after gone through chemical treatment. Six physicochemical parameters; temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, pH, total dissolved solid and specific conductance were measured in-situ. The average water temperature was recorded as 28.01°C, 0.02 ppt for salinity, 0.13 mg L-1 for DO, 7.90 for pH, 0.031 mg L-1 for TDS and 51.8 µS cm-1 for conductivity. The mean concentrations of the studied metals were lowered than the standard level proposed by WHO and USEPA for drinking water and ecosystem safety except for Pb. The contamination factor, CF for all elements indicates uncontaminated level at all sampling points. Generally, the study was found that the river was not contaminated with the studied pollutants and the nearby plantation activities do not seriously affected the quality of the studied river.