Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in River Rwizi Water and Sediment, Uganda

Sixteen priority polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were quantified in water and sediment from the River Rwizi watershed in Uganda. The data includes concentrations for surface water, sediment, and wastewater, with sources identified as pyrogenic and ecological and human health risks assessed. The dataset was created by Grace Birungi and last updated in May 2026.

Use Cases

• Assessing pollution sources based on diagnostic ratios of PAH concentrations.
• Evaluating ecological risk using the Mean Effect Range Median Quotient (M-ERM-Q) values.
• Estimating human health risk via Incremental Lifetime Cancer Risk (ILCR) calculations for drinking water exposure.
• Comparing contaminant levels against World Health Organization guidelines for water quality.

Strengths

• Includes measurements for all 16 priority PAHs across three sample types: surface water, sediment, and wastewater.
• Analytical method performance is documented with recovery, limits of detection and quantitation, and linearity.
• Provides specific concentration ranges up to 389.110 µg/kg for sediment and 142.196 µg/L for wastewater.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The dataset is small (221.8 KB), indicating a limited scope of samples or variables.

Provenance

Source

Grace Birungi via figshare.

Collection Method

PAHs were quantified using gas chromatography with a mass spectrometer detector (GC-MS).

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-22 07:53:34; freshness should be verified.

Geography

River Rwizi watershed, Uganda, specifically including Mbarara City.