Abstract
This paper aims to assess groundwater potability and palatability in the West Bank, Palestine. It combines the adjusted weighted arithmetic water quality index method (AWAWQIM), a close-ended questionnaire, and step-wise assessment ratio analysis (SWARA) to develop groundwater potability (PoGWQI) and palatability (PaGWQI) indices. Both a geographic information system (GIS) and the kriging interpolation method (KIM) are employed to create spatiotemporal mapping of PoGWQI and PaGWQI. The research is based on data from 79 wells, which were provided by the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA). Data include fecal coliform (FC), nitrate (NO3), pH, chloride (Cl), sulfate (SO4), bicarbonate (HCO3), total dissolved solids (TDS), turbidity, and hardness. Results indicate that 2% and 5% of water samples were unpotable and unpalatable, respectively. Unpotable samples were found in areas with poor sewer networks and intensive use of agrochemicals. All groundwater samples (100%) in the eastern part of the West Bank were unpalatable because of seawater intrusion. Unconfined aquifers were more vulnerable to potability and palatability contamination. It was noticed that PoGWQI is sensitive to FC and NO3, while PaGWQI is sensitive to HCO3, TDS, and Cl. Consequently, these quality parameters should be monitored well. The proposed method is of great interest to water decision-makers in Palestine for establishing strategies to protect water resources.
Highlights
Groundwater forms a major source of potable water for many countries in the world [1,2]
This paper presents an adjusted weighted arithmetic water quality index (WAWQI) method (AWAWQIM) to develop groundwater potability and palatability indices (PoGWQI and PaGWQI) in the West Bank
total dissolved solids (TDS) and Cl follow it with mean absolute error (MAE) between 7–18 and 6–16 units, respectively
Summary
Groundwater forms a major source of potable water for many countries in the world [1,2]. It has been naturally purified by the infiltration process. It is usually of excellent quality and requires no more than slight monitoring and treatment [3,4,5]. Urban (e.g., use of cesspits for wastewater disposal), agricultural (e.g., intensive use of fertilizers and pesticides), and industrial (e.g., unmanaged solid waste disposal) activities increase the soluble contaminants reaching groundwater [9,10,11,12,13,14,15]. Scholars have confirmed the increasing health risk associated with groundwater contamination [16,17], which could cause different diseases (e.g., hepatitis, dysentery, poisoning, blue baby syndrome, and cancers) and lead to death [11,13,14,18,19,20]
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