Abstract

Water is one of the basic, necessary conditions for the survival and development of living organisms on Earth. Any deviation of water quality from prescribed physical, chemical and biological characteristics of drinking water can be considered as pollution and contamination. Heavy metals as parameters of water quality should indicate the degree of contamination of watercourses with polluting substances as a consequence of anthropogenic influence, their dependence on climatic conditions, as well as their toxicity from an ecological point of view. In this paper, the concentrations of heavy metals in the water of the Bregava River were analyzed at eight localities in four seasons, when the water level of the river is different, and the anthropogenic influence on their concentration was analyzed. The concentration of toxic elements in the environment is determined by the amount that entered the environment, but also by the processes that influence their further fate. The experimental values for the heavy metals Cr, Pb, and Mn do not deviate from the MAC (Maximum Allowable Concentration) for surface water, based on which it is estimated that the analyzed heavy metals have no toxicological impact on the aquatic ecosystem of the Bregava River or on humans.