Several hundred pesticides of different chemical nature are currently used in
large quantities especially in developing countries for the control of agricultural
pests. Because of their widespread use, they are detected in various environmental
matrices, such as soil, water, and air. The aim of this study is to determine aspects of
sediment quality in different sites along the River Nile, by analyzing their content of
organochlorine and organophosphorus pesticides residues. Surface samples from 27
sites were collected from different locations of River-.Nile from Aswan to Damietta
Governorate during December 2004 to January 2005. The obtained results detected
that thirty-two different pesticide residues were monitored in sediment samples and
most of the analyzed sediment samples contained detectable levels of pesticide
residues, according to sampling location. Organochlorine pesticides were the main
contaminations of sediment samples, while the existences of organophosphorous
pesticide were the negligible in the same selected sites. BHC isomers i.e., c1, [3, y, 6;
cyclodine i.e., heptachlor, heptachlor epoxide, y-chlordane, aldrin, dildrin, endrin and
diphenyl trichloro ethan i.e., p, p-DDE, o, p -DDT, p, p-DDD and p, p—DDT were
detected at significantly greater concentrations than other pesticides. The geographic
distribution of pesticide concentration generally follows regional patterns in
agricultural use and the influence of urban area. Upper Egypt Governorates recorded
higher concentration of organochlorine pesticide residues than North Egypt
Governorates; on the other hand, North Egypt Governorates recorded high
concentration of organophosphorous pesticide residues than detected in Upper
Egypt Governorates. In general, it was found that the detected amounts of
organochlorine pesticide residues always same residue content in sediments from
other rivers in the world. However, the detected content of pesticide residues in the
studied sediments are in the permissible limits.