Physical and Chemical Characterization of the Bagoue Watershed (North-Western Cote D’Ivoire) Impacted by Artisanal and Clandestine Gold Mining

Augustin KOUAME N’guessan^1, , KOUAME Mathias Koffi^{1, 2}, Marius Tanoh KAMELAN¹ and Valentin N’DOUBA¹

¹Hydrobiology and Water Eco-technology Laboratory, Department of Biological Sciences, Felix Houphouët Boigny University (Abidjan Côte d’Ivoire) 22 Box 582 Abidjan 22, Côte d’Ivoire

²National Agricultural Development Support Laboratory, Box 612 Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire

Cite this paper:
Augustin KOUAME N’guessan, KOUAME Mathias Koffi, Marius Tanoh KAMELAN and Valentin N’DOUBA. Physical and Chemical Characterization of the Bagoue Watershed (North-Western Cote D’Ivoire) Impacted by Artisanal and Clandestine Gold Mining. Journal of Environment Pollution and Human Health. 2020; 8(1):20-28. doi: 10.12691/jephh-8-1-3

Abstract

A study on some physical and chemical variables of water quality was conducted on North-western Ivory Coast. The objective was to assess the physico-chemical quality of Bagoue watershed subjected to artisanal and clandestine gold mining. Data were collected during four sampling campaigns at six stations from August 2018 to April 2019. Twelve physicochemical variables were measured in-situ and two (total mercury and total suspended solids) were measured in the laboratory. The principal component analysis was carried out in order to classify the watershed in an area. The Kruskall-wallis test was applied to determine spatial variation in physicochemical parameters. Spearman’s test assessed the level of correlation between physicochemical variables. The results suggested a spatial variation in transparency and total suspended solids. In areas heavily impacted by illegal gold mining, in downstream, water is less oxygenated (3.86±0.42 mg/L), less transparent (25.25±4.24 cm) with heavy loads of suspended solids (92.62±26.81 mg/L). The average level of mercury was estimated at 0.68±0.03 µg/L for this study. Ultimately, strong correlations have been observed between dissolved substances and transparency (r = +0.84), between total phosphorus and resistivity (r = -1.00) among other things. In the overall, the results showed that Bagoue watershed has not yet reached the critical threshold of physicochemical pollution. Nevertheless, a greater pollution gradient downstream than upstream has been observed. In addition, waters of the basin are gradually enriching in mercury.

Keywords:
water quality mercury artisanal gold mining Bagoue River Côte d’Ivoire

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