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Occurrence of Micro-Plastics in Tigris River Water in Middle of Iraq
Summary
This study detected microplastic particles in surface water samples from the Tigris River in Baghdad, Iraq, finding between 27 and 74 particles per sample with polypropylene and polyethylene being the most common types. The results establish a baseline for microplastic contamination in a major Middle Eastern river system that supplies water to millions of people.
Abstract Microplastics, which are emerging pollutants in the environmental world, have become a source of concern for researchers and the public by virtue of the increasing use of plastic and mismanagement of plastic waste. Currently, research focuses on marine environments, with less attention to freshwater environments, especially urban rivers. In this study, 11 samples were taken from surface water along the Tigris River in the city of Baghdad and from the Kut Dam. The process of chemical digestion using H2O2 (30%) was used to digest natural organic materials, separation by density to get rid of unwanted materials, and then examination under an optical microscope and FTIR. The abundance of plastic materials ranged from 27to74 particles/sample size. Polypropylene, polyethylene and polystyrene were common types of microplastics as they represented (66.92%) of the samples. Fibers and fragments were the dominant microplastic forms in all samples. White color is the dominant characteristic of all samples. It has been shown that hydrodynamic conditions and the locations of urban cities and industrial facilities affect the concentrations of microplastics. The study’s results at S9, S10, and S11 show that microplastics are accumulating in the dam, indicating that the dam might act as a sink for microplastics.