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The Nile River is one of the longest rivers in the world, serving as the lifeline of many countries. The river is subjected to significant anthropogenic pressures, and thus, understanding the magnitude of contamination and its possible consequences is needed. This research aimed to evaluate the presence of heavy metals in the surface water of an understudied region within the Nile River. The distribution and level of 18 elements along the Damietta branch were assessed, and their potential sources were estimated. Additionally, pollution indices and health risks were calculated. The results showed that most metals were within the acceptable levels of USEPA and WHO. However, Na, Mg, and Ca were higher than the permissible level of WHO, and K was higher than the permissible levels for irrigation. Furthermore, heavy metal pollution indicators, degree of contamination indices, heavy metal evaluation indices, Nemerow pollution indices, and water quality indices all pointed to very high standards for water quality. Also, the noncarcinogenic health risk index indicated a safe limit for dermal and oral exposure for adults and children. Overall, this study recommends management focus on anthropogenic activities in the Damietta branch of the Nile River. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Edku lagoon is one of the important aquaculture sectors in the Nile Delta of Egypt. Recently, the lagoon has become a sink of discharge wastewater from different anthropogenic sources. The present work aims to study physicochemical parameters, level of nutrients and heavy metal concentrations in water of the lagoon to assess the water quality and identify the potential pollution source(s). Water quality index (WQI), eutrophication index and multiple heavy metal pollution indices (HPI, HEI, PI and Cd) in addition to evaluation of human health risk (HQdermal) model were applied. The obtained data revealed that physicochemical parameter varied between 7.62 - 8.90 for pH, 1.2 - 12.2 g/l for salinity, 3.5 - 12.5 mg/l for dissolved oxygen, 1.3 - 1.9 mg/l for ammonia, 0.065 - 0.191 mg/l for nitrite, 0.217 - 0.915 mg/l nitrate, 0.198 - 0.527 mg/l for orthophosphate, and 51.32 - 102.7 µg/l for chlorophyll-a. The average concentrations of heavy metals were 0.439, 0.322, 0.290, 0.328, 0.059, 0.040, 0.00005 ppm for Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, Pb, Cd and Hg, respectively. Based on WQI, the lagoon was classified as bad water, while EI result varied between eutrophic to mesotrophic. The pollution indices revealed to lagoon water is highly contaminated based on HPI, HEI and Cd and varied between slightly affected to seriously affected by heavy metals according to PI. Human health risk showed that, HQdermal for all metals except Cd lower than the unity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]