Bio remediation of some Elements in Polluted Water Located in Woji Creek using Green Plants

Abstract

This research work was aimed at using locally available plants (duckweed and water lilies) to remove heavy metals in water samples from Woji Creek in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. The pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen (DO), total dissolved solid, oxidation reduction potential, and electrical conductivity of the water were assessed. The result of the physicochemical parameters showed that the mean value of the electrical conductivity (EC) was highest in June (46. 34±91. 5 µS/cm), temperature was high in June (27.9±1.0 ^oC), DO was highest in August (9.8±2.0 mg/l), pH had high value for July (7.4±0.7) and TDS for June (3548.0±1638.3 mg/l), which were lower than national and international permissible limit standard except for EC, DO and TDS. The uptake of cadmium by the roots of the water lily was highest for station 4 (0.7 mg/kg) and shoots for station 4 (2.1 mg/kg). The most uptakes for the Copper  by the roots was for station 4 (0.9 mg/kg) and shoot for station 5 (1.3 mg/kg).The percentage of uptake of Cd for the root of the water lily was 19.3% while the shoots was 32.9% respectively.  Cd had the highest accumulation of metals in the duckweed on station 4 (3.0 mg/kg), and Cu was in station 5 (2.2 mg/kg). The amount of Cd in sediment was highest in the month of June (4.9±2.5 mg/kg), followed by September (4.2±0.4 mg/kg), July (3.1±0.5 mg/kg), August (2.4±0.3 mg/kg) respectively. The water lily and duckweed plants were significantly good for phytoremediation agents and as such could be employed by industries for such purposes.