TITLE:
Evaluating Groundwater Pollution Using Hydrochemical Data: Case Study (Al Wahat Area East of Libya)
AUTHORS:
Salam M. Rashrash, Bahia M. Ben Ghawar, Abdelrahim M. Hweesh
KEYWORDS:
Al Wahat Area, Shallow Groundwater, Chemical Compound Analysis
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Water Resource and Protection,
Vol.7 No.4,
March
24,
2015
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 partcoincident 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.