Bulletin of the Geological Society of Malaysia, Volume 55, November 2009, pp. 21-26

Assessment of groundwater pollution at municipal solid waste of Ibb landfill in Yemen

Esmail Al Sabahi¹, Abdul Rahim S.¹, Wan Zuhairi W.Y.¹ & Fadhl Al Nozaily²

¹Geology Program, School of Environment and Natural Resource Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi Selangor, Malaysia.

²Water and Environment Center, Sana’a University, Republic of Yemen

Abstract— Groundwater samples were collected from five boreholes from Ibb landfill to study the possible impact of leachate percolation into the groundwater. The objective of the study is to assess the groundwater pollution due to Ibb landfill at Al-Sahool area, Ibb city, the Republic of Yemen. The concentrations of various physiochemical parameters include heavy metals (Pb, Zn, Ni, Cr, Cd, Cu) pH, Temperature, Electrical Conductivity (EC), Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Dissolved Oxygen (DO), anions and nutrients (F-, Cl-, SO₄^-2, NO₂, NO₃^–, NH₃-N), and major cations (Fe, Na, K, Ca, Mg) were measured from the groundwater samples. The results show that four out of five boreholes are contaminated, where the concentration of physic-chemical parameters are above the standard acceptable levels which required for drinking water adapted by Yemen’s Ministry of Water and Environment (YMWE, 1999). The study has revealed that leachate from Ibb landfill has penetrated and polluted the groundwater resource in this area. The use of leachate collection pond is highly recommended to store and treat the leachate before the pollution level gets worse.

Keywords: Ibb landfill, groundwater, pollution, heavy metals

https://doi.org/10.7186/bgsm55200904