SPECIATION OF THE HEAVY METALS CONCENTRATION IN CASSAVA ROOTS (MANIHOT SPP. FAMILY EUPHORBIACEAE) CULTIVATED IN OKPAI OIL AND GAS BEARING COMMUNITY, DELTA NIGERIA.

Industrial activities of oil exploration and exploitation have been consistently associated with environment degradation thus violating the environmental quality. This study was an ex-post facto research that investigated the content of heavy metals in cassava roots in Okpai oil bearing community for their sustainability for human and animal consumption and for export. Okpai community was mapped into sample units corresponding to the 5 quarters, Oluchi, Obeze, Umuagulu, Ashaka and Obodoyibo. Each units was further mapped into 5 research cells using the villages farm locations and cassava roots samples of 4-5 cm in length were obtained from 5 sampling spots in each cell bulked and composites drawn. The analytical standard adopted was WHO 2018 and the instrument of determination deployed was Agilent ICP-MS Mass Hunter Software version 5.7 and the mean results obtained were as follow; Pb, 0.05±0.00 mg/kg, Cd, 0.05±0.02, Mn, 0.06±0.02, Co, 0.02±0.00 and Cr, 0.06±0.02. The mean results were further subjected to test of significance deploying SPSS IBM model 29 at 0.05 level of significance and the p-value was 0.048 thus rejecting H0. The study concluded that the heavy metals concentration in cassava roots in Okpai were higher than WHO 2018 maximum permissible concentration for heavy metals in food and thus recommended that cassava production should be discontinued in the interim. Oil company in Okpai should be made to adopt world best practices in their operations; decontamination remediation and restoration should be commissioned forthwith to restore the environment to its hitherto pristine status so as to attain improved environmental quality.