Studying the impacts of groundwater evolution on the environment, west Qena city, Egypt
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Studying the impacts of groundwater evolution on the environment, west Qena city, Egypt Saad Ahmed Mohallel 1 & Mohammed Ahmed Gomaa 1
Received: 18 September 2015 / Accepted: 4 August 2017 # Saudi Society for Geosciences 2017
Abstract The current research has been conducted to evaluate groundwater aquifers qualitatively in the area located in the Western side of Qena city. The Quaternary aquifer represents the main groundwater source in the study area. It exists under unconfined to semiconfined conditions at depths varying between 4 m due North and 80 m in the South. The chemical analyses of the groundwater samples indicate that 77% of the total samples are fresh and 20% are brackish, while only 3% are saline. In addition, the iso-salinity contour map indicates that the salinity increases towards the central and northern parts of the study area. The total and permanent hardness increase as water salinity increases and vice versa in case of temporary hardness in the groundwater samples. The chemical water types and the ion ratios indicate meteoric origin of groundwater as well as the dissolution of terrestrial and marine salts. The contribution of recent recharge from the River Nile to a few groundwater wells in the study area varies from low to high. In addition, the most recharge sources are from the precipitation. Nitrate concentrations in groundwater increase towards the central and Northern areas significantly elevated in response to increasing anthropogenic land uses. Much of the solutes and physicochemical parameters in these waters are under the undesirable limits of World Health Organization (WHO) for drinking purpose, and a plot of sodium adsorption ratio versus EC shows that about 23% of the groundwater samples are good water quality, about 45% of
* Saad Ahmed Mohallel [email protected] Mohammed Ahmed Gomaa [email protected] 1
Desert Research Center, Hydrogeochemistry Department, 1 El-Mathaf St. El Matariya, Cairo, Egypt
groundwater samples are moderate quality, and 23% of the groundwater samples are intermediate water class, while the rest of samples (9%) are out of the range. Keywords Groundwater . Water quality . Western Desert . West Qena City
Introduction In the last few years, intensive private land reclamation activities have taken place in the area lying to the west of Qena city. These activities have caused an ever growing water demand for irrigation and other purposes. Because the soaking irrigation system is used in this area, many problems have raised such as water logging and forming of water accumulations near the soil surface that has a bad effect on the crops. The geologic structures that formed the Nile at Qena district permit to form an aquifer to the west of the Nile at El-Marashda area and its vicinities. Due to the lack of detailed studies and enough information about the subsurface setting in that area, many farm owners faced serious problems. Accordingly, it is becoming increasingly clear that detailed study for this area is of prime importance and ther
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