Study of Heavy Metals in the Surface Sediments of the Main Wadis in the Region of Meknes-Morocco

Abstract

Because of their growing demographic and industrial expansion, the urban areas of the city of Meknes are likely to disturb the ecological balance of watercourse. In the present work, we had evaluate the degree of sediment’s contamination by heavy metals (Al, Cd, Cu, Fe, Mn, Pb and Zn) in the main wadis of the Meknes region (Boufekrane, Wislane and Toulal) which are tributaries of the oued R’doom. These heavy metals were assayed by ICP, after the sediment mineralization by aqua regia. Reference concentrations were determined by the method of coring. In parallel to this and for the characterization of the studied sediments, we also determined the physico-chemical parameters: Carbonates, organic matter, pH and granulometry. The analysis of the whole data collected by a multivariate statistical method (factorial correspondence analysis) allowed us to distinguish five groups of heavy metals.