Analysis of Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons in Water from Ngong and Mathare Rivers, Nairobi County, Kenya
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Date
2018Author
Masenge, Edna M
Wandiga, Shem O
Shiundu, Paul M
Madadi, Vincent O
Type
ArticleLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Unsustainable industrial development has created negative impacts to global ecosystem quality and biodiversity
due to increased load of chemical and biological contaminants released into environment. Ecological
sustainability of Nairobi River Basin in Kenya, hangs in the balance between socioeconomic exploitation and
environmental management. Nairobi, Ngong and Mathare rivers constitute the three main tributaries of
Nairobi River Basin. The basin has witnesssed increased pollution load, destruction of the wetlands and
encroachment of the buffer zones due to rapid urbanisation. The objective of this study was to investigate the
extent of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) contamination in Mathare and Ngong rivers. We collected water
from eight sampling sites constituting the upstream, midstream and downstream of the two rivers. The samples
were extracted using HPLC grade dichloromathane and analysed for Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons (TPH)
using a Gas Chromatography equipped with Flame Ionisation Detector. TPH in Mathare River ranged from
59.66±8.64 to 463.92±2.63 μg/L, whereas levels in Ngong’ River ranged from 11.85±0.10 to 1,219.95 μg/L. The
concentration increased downstream indicating the influence of industrial and urbanistion on the pollution
load. The results suggest that industries and municipal activities in the City are contributing to TPH
contamination in the Nairobi River Basin tributaries and therefore they are likely to jeopardize ecological
quality of the rivers ecosystems if protective measures are not taken.
URI
https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/57035135/4817.pdf?1532065763=&response-content-disposition=inline%3B+filename%3DAnalysis_of_Total_Petroleum_Hydrocarbons.pdf&Expires=1630575850&Signature=P2W-~AE-1Zq63e45SP3aRrg8hvrW~ktuVpEIn-trK1UUr8qeKhVZJrz01zYthoQByG9iCXncMWiPYpj4BTx35TLNW0m5~ZptepL~HyDetimYJMonmr-EKWP9Y7whZcqoKlj7surZrLdOckekuL6VDWr7DElt-3EwcRNeAEVAOOh23RDDOph5VH5-9XvTPDFkDho-9Xv3M-E6WzxmFuevhSI0k~vADEi~XE1NW2Z2wnlCjS-HzpV~Ew3JFlxVXQHDdNYwuxY~WctAH72tNbSXSiIf3pSfjECtUbErn8UlIKNbSSgD9sQ2t9AjKMd8DTWfQE55u0WfZPmNXioCSyRBVA__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZAhttp://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke/handle/11295/155412
Citation
Masenge EM, Wandiga SO, Shiundu PM, Madadi VO. "Analysis of Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons in Water from Ngong and Mathare Rivers, Nairobi County, Kenya." International Journal of Scientific Research in Science, Engineering and Technology . 2018;4(8):252-256.Publisher
University of Nairobi
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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
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