A Study on Heavy Metal Content of Soil in Garki Area Council of Abuja, Nigeria

This study investigates the concentration of Heavy Metals in soil sample from 15 different locations in
Garki area of Federal Capital Territory (F.C.T) Abuja, Nigeria. The soil PH of the sample sites varies
on the average from 6.44 to 7.24 in water indicating only a slightly acidic to neural. The level of Cu,
Cd, Pb, Ni, Mn, and Zn were determined using flame atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The
results obtained indicated that these metals on dry weight basis in the soil ranged between (36.60-
525.0 μg/g) Pb, (15.00-74.40 μg/g) Cu, (17.50-29.80 μg/g) Zn, (0.7-2.20 μg/g) Cd, (16.16-24.60 μg/g)
Ni, and (270-558.0 μg/g) Mn. From the results, areas with high traffic density seem to be relatively
high in concentration of tested metals than those from less traffic density. A significant correlation was
found between traffic density and metal concentrations.
Generally, the concentrations obtained were much higher than the tolerable limit for safe environment
as prescribed by National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA)
and World Health Organization (WHO).