Abstract
BackgroundThe limited water resources in arid environments in addition to the effect of agricultural and anthropogenic activities on groundwater quantity and quality necessitate paying more attention to the quality assessment of these resources. The present studies assess the quality of groundwater resources in Wadi El-Assiuti, south Egypt, and evaluate their suitability for drinking and irrigation purposes. To achieve this goal, 159 groundwater samples were collected from the outlet and central parts of the Wadi El-Assiuti during the autumn season (October–November) of 2019 and were analyzed for major ions, trace elements and heavy metals.ResultsThe results indicate that the TDS values range between 1972 and 6217 ppm, while the concentration of trace elements (Fe++, Mn++ and Ni+) ranges between 0.05 and 0.46, 0.11 and 0.221 and 0.01 and 0.6 ppm, respectively. These results show that all groundwater samples are clearly unacceptable and inappropriate for human drinking due to their high content of total dissolved solids, trace elements and heavy metals, particularly in the majority of samples according to World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines and the Egyptian standards (Eg. St. 2007) for drinking water quality. Spatial analysis of the TDS values in geographic information system environment indicates that the salinity is higher in the northeast and gradually decreases southward. Sodium adsorption ratio, US Salinity Laboratory classification (1954), residual sodium carbonate, soluble sodium percentage and permeability index show that most groundwater samples are suitable for irrigation purposes.ConclusionsThe integrated approach provided in this study highlights the spatially distributed suitability of groundwater resources in Wadi El-Assiuti and can be applied in similar basins worldwide.
Highlights
The limited water resources in arid environments in addition to the effect of agricultural and anthropogenic activities on groundwater quantity and quality necessitate paying more attention to the quality assessment of these resources
The main objective of the present study is to evaluate the groundwater quality and its suitability for drinking purposes based on Egyptian and World Health Organization (WHO) standards and to assess groundwater for agricultural purposes based on international recommendations for irrigation in the outlet and central parts of Wadi El-Assiuti
A portable field kit was used for measurements of Concentrations of Hydrogen Ions (pH) and electrical conductivity (EC) in field. Cl−, HCO3−, Ca++, and Mg++ contents were measured by titration, while S O4− concentration was estimated by turbidity, and Na+ and K+ contents were estimated by flame photometer
Summary
The limited water resources in arid environments in addition to the effect of agricultural and anthropogenic activities on groundwater quantity and quality necessitate paying more attention to the quality assessment of these resources. The present studies assess the quality of groundwater resources in Wadi El-Assiuti, south Egypt, and evaluate their suitability for drinking and irrigation purposes. To achieve this goal, 159 groundwater samples were collected from the outlet and central parts of the Wadi El-Assiuti during the autumn season (October–November) of 2019 and were analyzed for major ions, trace elements and heavy metals. With the upstream countries in the Nile basin proceeding with building dams on the major stream of the Nile River, the Egyptian government is paying more attention to explore new resources of groundwater and to maintain the quality of groundwater for drinking and irrigation purposes (Negm et al 2018). The groundwater aquifers in Egypt can be classified in three major groups including
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