Determination of arsenic in water, sediments and fish in some rivers found at Konongo and its surrounding towns and villages by neutron activation analysis

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1999-07-29
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Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) method has been employed for arsenic determination in water, sediments and fish in water bodies at Konongo and its surrounding villages. The work was carried out at the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission, Acera. Water, fish and sediment samples were collected from Konongo and its surrounding towns and villages as well as those from the site of the mining company, Obenemase Gold Mine (0GM), notably the ores and the tailing dams and analysed for the presence and level of arsenic. The samples were also analysed for other parameters including gold. The general water quality of the water samples were carried out. In some of the water samples, the results showed the presence of arsenic whiles others did not give any indication of the metal. Some of the water samples gave significant levels of arsenic. For sediments and fish samples, arsenic was found in all the sampling sites. The arsenic level found in the fish samples were low but that of the sediments were very high. The average arsenic level found in the water samples analysed ranged between 0.04 and 12.2 ppm while that in the sediment ranged between 31 and 4626 ppm. The average arsenic concentration found in the fish samples ranged from 0.96 to 1.72 ppm. The sediments showed level of gold compared to that reported elsewhere. However, the water as well as the fish did not give any indication of gold contrary to expectation. The untreated ore showed the highest arsenic and gold contents compared to any of the sediments. At one of the sampling sites, sediments were collected from different sinks. It was observed that the upper sink (i.e. the surface portion) showed higher level of arsenic than the lower sink (i.e. bottom portion). For most of the water samples, the general water quality were found to be within the acceptable range recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).
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A thesis submitted to the Board of Postgraduate Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the award of the Degree of Master of Science in Analytical Chemistry, 1999
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