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ABSTRACT
In 1986, the then Nigerian Military Government promulgated a decree stipulating that all small scale businesses/industries be moved out of the main city to selected locations in the more remote areas. In line with the decree, the Edo State Government decided to create/ establish three small scale industrial villages in the state, situated at Ogbesan, and Evbomodu. This project assessed the current state of the heavy metal contamination of the soil and the water sources at the abandoned auto mechanic village of Evbomodu community, Benin City, Nigeria. To assess the heavy metal contents of the soil and water samples taken from the affected areas of the abandoned site, various parameters and heavy metal tests ( Zinc, Cadmium, and Lead) were carried out. The tests showed that the soil and water samples collected from the former industrial site were low in pH and electrical conductivity in comparison to the control samples. The sub soil sample of Site C with a value of 6.0 appeared to possess the lowest pH values, while the top soil sample of Site B with a pH value of 7.7 and the sub soil sample of Site B with a value of 7.7 both appeared to possess the highest pH values, thus less acidic than the other soil samples but were still lower than the control sample which had a pH value of 8.0. The run-off water sample from Site D had the highest value of 9.7 and the tap water samples from Sites B and C had the lowest values of 7.5 respectively.The sub soil sample of Site C with a value of 27.0 appeared to have the lowest E/C values than all other soil samples. The top soil samples of Sites B with a value of 62.5 appeared to have the highest E/C values than all other soil samples, but still had a lower E/C value than the control soil sample which had a value of 7.0. Site C run-off water sample recorded the highest E/C value of 29.7 and Site A tap water sample recorded the lowest E/C value of 2.33. The results from the heavy metals analysis showed that the soil and water samples gotten from the abandoned mechanical village had elevated results in the Lead and Zinc determination tests. Results from the Lead tests showed that the sub soil sample of Site C recorded the lowest value of 0 while the sub soil sample of Site B recorded a value of 8.15, higher than the control sample with a value of 6.74. The tap water sample from Site C recorded the highest value of 9.82 while the run-off water sample from Site D recording the lowest value of 0. The results from the Zinc determination tests revealed that the sub soil of Site D recorded a value of 41.1 while the top soil sample of Site A recorded the lowest value of 0.069. The run-off water sample from Site D recorded the highest, with a value of 48.80 and the tap water sample from the Site D recorded the lowest, with a value of 0. The Cadmium tests revealed that Cadmium was below detection level for them equipment used
