Impact of leachate on quality of ground water around Chunga Landfill, Lusaka, Zambia and possible health risks

We report the characteristics and possible impact of leachate on quality of groundwater in the Chunga Landfill area of Lusaka, Zambia. Water and leachate samples were collected within and around the landfill for analysis. The pH, biological oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), nitrates, sulphates, chlorides for the leachate and groundwater samples were (6.6 ± 0.1 to 8.7 ± 0.0), (1.7 ± 0.3 to 1,569.6 ± 4.9 mg/L), (4.0 ± 0.0 to 10,378.5 ± 59.2 mg/L), (8.0 ± 0.0 to 37.7 ± 0.4 mg/L), (11.7 ± 0.0 to 273.1 ± 1.7 mg/L), (43.0 ± 1.2 to 974.2 ± 0.8 mg/L) respectively. Heavy metal concentration ranges were cadmium (0.004 ± 0.000 to 1.149 ± 0.021 mg/L, chromium (0.007 ± 0.000 to 2.699 ± 0.039 mg/L), copper (0.013 ± 0.002 to 0.246 ± 0.005 mg/L), lead (0.062 ± 0.005 to 2.591 ± 0.065 mg/L) and zinc (0.008 ± 0.001 to 2.032 ± 0.017 mg/L). The pH of the leachate (8.5 ± 0.0 to 8.7 ± 0.0) meant the landfill was in the methane fermentation phase. An indexing approach was used with the leachate pollution index (LPI) of 30.173, heavy metal pollution index (HPI) of 3,938.92. The heavy metal index (HMI) for copper, lead, chromium, cadmium and zinc were found to be 0.92, 1,124.19, 47.20, 994.17 and 1.48 respectively. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed that anthropogenic activities contributed to pollution with high loading values. Ash from continuous burning of the waste may provide alkalinity which reduces leachate BOD and COD. Results showed that the landfill has outgrown the designed cells capacity as not all leachate was collected by the under-drainage. Results also showed that lack of adequate landfill cover significantly increases rainfall infiltration thereby increasing volumes of leachate produced with a, hence potential for underground water contamination and a human health and environmental problem.