Paper Title
Chemical Composition of Rainwater Collected at Selected Sites in Samoa
Abstract
This research characterises the chemical composition such as major cations, Na+, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+ and NH ), anions (Cl , NO , SO , CO ) and trace metals (Cu2+, Zn2+ and Cd2+) of rainwater collected from selected sites in Samoa.Samoa has undergone tremendous growth and commercial development over the last ten years with a population of 195,843 (SBS, 2017). The majority of the population (~78%) reside on Upolu Island and 19% of the population live in the Apia urban area. Most of the population in Samoa are using readily available, untreated rainwater for both consumption and other domestic purposes. Amosa, 2006 reported the concentrations of ionic species (in μeq/l) followed the order Cl-> SO42-> NO3- for anions and Na+> Mg2+> Ca2+> K+ for cations. Thus the result from this study will provide more insight of the level of atmospheric pollution in rainwater through the determination of chemical composition of rainwater in Samoa in ten years.
Keywords - Chemical Composition, Pollutants, Rainwater, Sources, Samoa