Paper
Assessment of Toxic Metal Pollution in Some Rivers in the Tikveš Basin, Republic of Macedonia
- Authors:
- Svetlana To?evska; Dragan Vasileski; Traj?e Stafilov; Katerina Ba?eva; Kole Pavlov
- Abstract
- The Tikveš Basin, which covers the central and the south parts of the Republic of Macedonia, boasts a favourable geographic location and is of distinctive strategic and economic importance for the country. The region, however, has modest hydrological resources and faces a series of accumulated water management problems that hugely affect water supply, erosive processes and quality of surface water, the monitoring network of which is insufficient. In this respect, this work aimed at a more systematic and comprehensive assessment of water quality in some rivers, tributaries of the river Vardar in Tikveš Basin, primarily based on heavy metals as the chemical parameters during 2010. Besides determining the distribution of heavy metals in the rivers, the secondary priority is given to identifying the natural and the anthropogenic sources of pollution. The assessment of water quality at small tributaries of the river Vardar in the Tikveš Basin in 2010, based on their pollution with heavy metals, can lead to a general conclusion that the Luda Mara River has the lowest summary quality at the measurement point downstream the urban settlement of Kavadarci. Exceeded concentrations of Mn, Cu and Cd were recorded in the water and of Cu and Ni in the sediment. The Blašnica River had high concentrations of arsenic in water whose origin is related to mining activities of the abandoned As-Sb-Tl mine of Allchar. Exceeded concentrations of Pb and Cu were also recorded in water as were concentrations of nickel and chromium in the sediment. The high values for Ni and Cr originate from mine activities of the Ržanovo mine (ferro-nickel ores), located in the very proximity of the river flow.
- Keywords
- Rivers; Pollution; Heavy Metals; Water Quality; Tikveš Basin; Republic Of Macedonia
- StartPage
- 9
- EndPage
- 16
- Doi