Chemical composition of rainwater at three sites in Kandy/Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, and its effect on air pollution

Abstract

The composition of atmospheric precipitation, an important criterion considered to account for air pollution, is usually determined with respect to wet precipitation and dry precipitation, or as bulk deposition in combined form. Although rainwater quality should be continuously monitored in order to understand the extent of air pollution, such investigation lacks attention in Sri Lanka. This study was thus aimed to determine the composition of bulk deposition collected weekly for a period of eleven months from February to December 2019, in three sampling locations; namely the University of Peradeniya (UOP), Kandy City Central (KCC) and Polgolla. Parameters quantitatively determined, rainfall, pH, conductivity, salinity, total dissolved solids (TDS), hardness, anions: Cl⁻, NO₃⁻, SO₄²⁻, F⁻, PO₄³⁻ and trace metals: Zn, Fe, Al, Mn, Cu, Pb, Cr, using standard analytical methods indicated that the KCC site showed the overall highest degree of air pollution followed by UOP and Polgolla sites. Nevertheless, no acid rain occurrences were observed during the sampling period in any of the three sites according to pH measurements. Anions of bulk deposition showed the sequence Cl⁻> SO₄²⁻ > NO₃⁻in all three sites with Cl⁻and SO₄^2- being dominant anions. Furthermore, trace metals of bulk deposition showed the sequence, Zn > Fe > Al > Mn > Cu > Pb, in all three sites. Bulk precipitation data analyzed using Pearson correlation showed high positive significant correlations between conductivity and salinity, conductivity and TDS, and salinity and TDS, among all water quality parameters. Among trace metals, the highest positive significant correlation was found to be between Fe and Mn at the UOP Site. The highest positive significant correlation was between Al and Zn at the KCC site. No correlation between trace metals was found at the Polgolla Site.