Assessment of Toxic Metals in Open Dump Site Near PNG University of Technology, Papua New Guinea

Abstract

Groundwater is a valuable natural resource but is always vulnerable to contamination, especially from open dumping and landfills. Drinking water contaminated with heavy metals can have detrimental effects on people's health, such as kidney illness, cancer, anaemia, brain damage, hypertension and more.  Several concerns were raised over groundwater quality in and around a municipal solid waste dump at the Papua New Guinea University of Technology (PNGUoT), Lae, Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea. To testify to these concerns on quality, samples were extracted and analyzed for various heavy metals along with other physicochemical parameters. The results from groundwater analyses significantly show concerned levels of concentrations of heavy metals Cd (0.0002 to 0.02 mg/L), Pb (0.00002 to 0.02 mg/L), and Hg (0.0001 to 0.002 mg/L) in bore water samples which deviate from World Health Organization (WHO) drinking water quality standards. The presence of Cd, Pb and Hg in borewells is a serious health concern and immediate action is needed for better dumping management at the site.