Abstract
Water is one of the most challenging current and future natural resources, which will directly affect the environment and development by the changes in its quantity, quality and regional distribution. However, Water quality is the critical factor that influences human health and irrigation proposer. This work aims to investigate hydrochemical analysis and geochemical processes influencing the groundwater of Al Wahat area (Jalou, Awjla and Jukherra), which is located in central east Libya. Thirty four water samples collected from domestic and agricultural water wells were analyzed and used for conventional classification techniques which were Piper, Durov and Stiff diagrams to evaluate geochemical processes. Cluster analysis was used to identify the water type and ions concentration and distribution. Results show significant increase of dissolved salts, especially Nitrates. Elevated nitrates concentration can be attributed to either the disposal of untreated sewage water from disposal ponds and septic tanks or the infiltration of irrigation water saturated with fertilizing chemicals. Therefore, irrigation wells revealed that suffering from nitrate contamination caused an increase of the chance of nitrate pollution. In addition, contour maps present a sudden increase in the total dissolved salts (TDS) in the northeastern part coincident with the highest of secondary ions of NO3 content, indicating the infiltration of irrigation water which is responsible partially for the groundwater degradation. Hydrogeochemical facie is NaCl type and enrichment of Na+ and Cl- can be attributed to urban untreated wastewaters and high rate of evapotranspiration. The concentrations of heavy elements such as Zn, Pb, Cu, Cd, Ni and Cr were low and within the WHO ranges.
Highlights
Fresh water in the Mediterranean regions represents 3% of the world’s water resources though it gathers 7.3% of the world’s population. 30 million Mediterranean citizens have no access to healthy water (PNUE [1]).Much of the population in Libya is concentrated within a narrow strip along the Mediterranean coast; the bulk of the ground water potential is located to the south in the desert area such as the Murzuq and Al Kufra basin.Much of the ground water is used in irrigated agriculture, which represents 80% of total consumption (Alghariani [2]).Groundwater can become contaminated from natural sources or numerous types of human activities
Hydrogeochemical studies are a useful tool which can help manage the quality of water resources
High concentration of NO3− is related to pollution, where NO3− has no known lithologic source, which is attributed to the urban wastewaters and agricultural practices involving chemical fertilizer applications
Summary
Fresh water in the Mediterranean regions represents 3% of the world’s water resources though it gathers 7.3% of the world’s population. 30 million Mediterranean citizens have no access to healthy water (PNUE [1]).Much of the population in Libya is concentrated within a narrow strip along the Mediterranean coast; the bulk of the ground water potential is located to the south in the desert area such as the Murzuq and Al Kufra basin.Much of the ground water is used in irrigated agriculture, which represents 80% of total consumption (Alghariani [2]).Groundwater can become contaminated from natural sources or numerous types of human activities. Fresh water in the Mediterranean regions represents 3% of the world’s water resources though it gathers 7.3% of the world’s population. Much of the population in Libya is concentrated within a narrow strip along the Mediterranean coast; the bulk of the ground water potential is located to the south in the desert area such as the Murzuq and Al Kufra basin. Waste from residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural activities can seriously affect groundwater quality. These contaminants may reach groundwater from activities on the land surface, such as industrial waste storage or spills, from sources below the land surface but above the water table, such as septic systems, from structures beneath the water table, such as wells, or from contaminated recharge from the aquifers
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