Affiliations: Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Universiti
Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. [email protected] or
[email protected]
Note: [] Corresponding Author
Abstract: The dissolved concentrations of metals (Cd, Cu, Pb, Ni, Fe and Zn),
temperature, total dissolved solids, pH, dissolved oxygen, salinity and
conductivity were determined in the surface waters of 24 geographical sampling
sites including city and urban drainages and rivers, from the west Peninsular
Malaysia, collected in January to April 2005. From these sampling sites, the
ranges (min-max) of dissolved metal concentrations (mg/L) were Cd: 0.001-0.055,
Cu: 0.001-0.1773, Pb: 0.001-1.523, Ni: 0.001-0.246, Fe: 0.001-35.67 and Zn:
0.0001-0.609 while for the water quality are pH: 4.96-9.81, dissolved oxygen
(0.39-7.26 mg/L), total dissolved solids (0.002-10.02 mg/L), salinity
(0.00-8.93 ppt), conductivity (3.33-17423 μS/cm) and temperature
(27.8-35.3�). Some sites with elevated dissolved concentrations of heavy
metals and poor water quality indicated the anthropogenic inputs of industrial
and urban wastes. Regular monitoring of water quality in all drainage waters is
recommended.
Keywords: water quality, dissolved heavy metals, rivers and drainages, west Peninsular Malaysia
