Assessment of Heavy Metal Pollution and Related Risks to Human Health–A Case of Angads Plain, Morocco

The present article assesses, for the first time, the level of heavy metal pollution, determines possible sources and evaluates the health risks associated with groundwater in the Angads plain in Morocco, by employing a combination of tools including indices, statistical multivariate techniques and models for health risk assessment. The findings revealed that the concentrations of several heavy metals (95.83% for As and 41.66% for Pb) were above the WHO limit values. The heavy metal pollution index (HPI) and the heavy metal evaluation index (HEI) revealed that all samples were fit for consumption. Health risks revealed that the hazard index (HI) values for dermal exposure were below the limit, while for oral exposure, 95.83% of samples were above the limit. In addition, the carcinogenic risk (CR) results revealed that there is a possibility of cancer development due to lifetime exposure to this groundwater.