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Extensive deterioration of water quality caused by the intensive land use activities in rivers and rapid response of pollutants from different sources may harm the aquatic organisms, humans, and the environment. The water quality of the Balok River is believed has been deteriorated by anthropogenic impact as a result of the industrial activities in the Gebeng industrial area. This alarming occurrence has initiated this study to investigate the main sources of pollution in two rivers near the Gebeng industrial zone. Data collection was done from two rivers namely Balok and Tunggak Rivers from 2018-2019 near Gebeng industrial area. The physicochemical parameters measured in this study were temperature, specific conductivity, pH, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, and salinity. The water samples were collected for tracing the radioactive elements and heavy metals by using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Then, the data were compared and analyzed by using environmetric analysis (cluster analysis and principal component analysis) based on the sampling site and source point. The finding from the environmetric analysis showed that the main pollutants loading in Balok and Tunggak River were Lead (first component), specific conductivity (second component), Thorium (third component), and pH (fourth component). It can be concluded that the presence of the pollutants in these two rivers were originated from both point and non-point sources which could be disquieting for the sustainable development of fisheries resources in the near future.

This study was focused on the correlation between water quality parameters with the level of radioactive elements and heavy metals at six different sampling points of rivers. For achieving these objectives, collected data was done for Balok river and Tunggak river in dry seasons. Both of the rivers selected were located in Gebeng industrial area, Pahang, Malaysia. The physical parameters such as temperature, specific conductivity, pH, turbidity and dissolved oxygen were measured by using hydrolab. The water samples were then collected for tracing the radioactive elements and heavy metals by using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The readings obtained from both in situ and ex situ analysis was analyzed by using SPSS to know the correlation between water quality parameter, radioactive elements and heavy metals. There were significant relationships found between all water quality parameters and most heavy metals selected (lead and cadmium), except for arsenic. While, for radioactive elements, in the year 2015, there were significant relationships found between most water quality parameters and thorium, exception for uranium. However, for year 2014, there is no significant relationship observed. The findings of the study showed some of the presence of pollutants such as heavy metals and radioactive elements concentrations were reflected some of the water quality parameters at all the sampling locations. © 2019 Chemical Publishing Co. All rights reserved.