ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH RISKS OF OPEN DUMPSITES: THE CASE OF IKLIM EL TEFFAH, SOUTHERN LEBANON

Abstract

Municipal solid waste management remains an obstacle facing many developing countries. This is primarily due to the lack of proper planning, insufficient funding and lack of legislation for proper implementation and monitoring systems. Thus, open dumping was viewed as a last resort for various countries. The present study aims to (1) investigate the environmental and health risks that open dumpsites have by polluting the groundwater, surface water and soil in Iklim El Teffah, southern Lebanon, (2) identify the dumpsites having the highest risk based on a developed risk sensitivity index, and (3) develop a rehabilitation plan to manage the open dumpsites. Samples were collected from 7 villages, where dumpsites are located. A total of 9 water samples and 21 soil samples were collected twice, once during the wet season and once during the dry season. Samples were examined for total and fecal coliforms and other physio-chemical parameters. Several environmental indices were then calculated to assess the environmental impacts of the present dumpsites. Our findings indicated that several soil parameters including TN, pH, DO, COD, salinity and sulfate levels, were altered due to the dumpsites. The trend of heavy metals concentration varied between dumpsites. Fe, Cr, Zn, Cu & Mn were most prevalent across all dumps but were found to exceed the permissible limits in some of them. Soil samples were found to be moderately contaminated with dumpsite 6 having the highest total ecological risk. The altered parameters have a direct effect on soil fertility and, if biomagnified, they could disrupt crop yield. Physiochemical properties and heavy metal concentrations in water samples weren’t significantly altered and were found to be within permissible limits. Soil and water samples were found to have high levels of total coliforms. The use of water having high counts of fecal coliforms and E.coli is considered to be critical as they are associated with various gastrointestinal diseases, typhoid, fever and urinary tract infections. For the population exposed to the present dumpsites, incident cases of liver and lung cancer & congenital anomalies that would be merely attributed to the exposure to dumpsites were found to be 39 %, 13% & 2%, respectively. Applying the analytical hierarchy process (AHP), landfill mining was found to be the remediation plan with the highest priority value. The latter is supposed to be followed up with phytoremediation, a bioremediation process for contaminated dumpsite soils.