Impact of marble industry effluents on water and sediment quality of Barandu River in Buner District, Pakistan Shahi Mulk & Azizullah Azizullah & Abdul Latif Korai & Muhammad Nasir Khan Khattak Received: 2 October 2014 /Accepted: 4 December 2014 # Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 Abstract Industries play an important role in improv- ing the living standard but at the same time cause several environmental problems. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the impact of industries on the quality of envi- ronment. In the present study, the impact of marble industry effluents on water and sediment quality of Barandu River in Buner District, Pakistan was evaluat- ed. Water and sediment samples were collected at three different sampling sites (upstream, industrial, and down- stream sites) from Barandu River and their physico- chemical properties were inter-compared. In addition, different marble stones and mix water (wastewater) from marble industry were analyzed. The measured physicochemical parameters of river water including pH, electrical conductivity (EC), alkalinity, total hard- ness, Ca and Mg hardness, total dissolved solid (TDS), total suspended solids (TSS), sulfates (SO 4 2- ), sodium (Na + ), potassium (K + ), nitrites (NO 2 - ), nitrate (NO 3 - ), chloride (Cl - ), calcium (Ca 2+ ), and magnesium (Mg 2+ ) were found to be significantly altered by effluent discharges of marble industries. Similarly, heavy metal concentrations in both water and sediments of the river were significantly increased by marble industry waste- water. It is concluded that large quantities of different pollutants are added to Barandu River due to direct disposal of marble industry effluents which degrades its quality. Therefore, it is recommended that direct disposal of marble industry wastewater should be banned and all effluents must be properly treated before discharging in the river water. Keywords Barandu River . Water quality . Sediment quality . Marble industries . Buner . Pakistan Introduction The rapid increase in population coupled with the in- creasing demand for water in industry and agriculture has led to serious decrease in per capita water availabil- ity in the world. It has been estimated that by 2025 around 2.8 billion people in 48 countries, mostly in Middle East and Africa, will face water shortage or scarcity (Wetlands International 2010). The problem is further aggravated due to rapid deterioration of water quality by various anthropogenic activities. There are generally five major categories of water pollutants, i.e., suspended solids and sediments, inorganic compound, organic compound, and heat and radioactive materials (Daniel and Edward 1995). An increase in the concentration/quantity of one or more of these pollut- ants makes the water unfit or hazardous for living Environ Monit Assess (2015) 187:8 DOI 10.1007/s10661-014-4221-8 S. Mulk : M. N. K. Khattak (*) Department of Zoology, Hazara University, Mansehra, Pakistan e-mail: mnkuoh@gmail.com A. Azizullah Department of Botany, Kohat University of Science and Technology, Kohat, Pakistan A. L. Korai Department of Livestock and Fisheries, Government of Sindh, Sindh, Pakistan