The use of GIS and water quality index to assess groundwater quality of krimat aquifer (Essaouira; Morocco)
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The use of GIS and water quality index to assess groundwater quality of krimat aquifer (Essaouira; Morocco) Otman El Mountassir1 · Mohammed Bahir1,2 · Driss Ouazar2 · Salah Ouhamdouch1 · Abdelghani Chehbouni2,3 · Mohamed Ouarani2 Received: 2 December 2019 / Accepted: 30 March 2020 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract The aim of this present study was to evaluate groundwater quality in the upstream part of the Essaouira basin. A detailed geochemical study of groundwater region is described, and the origin of the chemical composition of groundwater has been qualitatively evaluated, using multivariate statistical methods (PCA, HCA), and Water Quality Index (WQI) was used to determine the suitability of water for drinking. To attempt this investigation, 38 samples were analysed for various physicochemical parameters such as temperature, pH, TDS, Na, NO3, K, Ca, HCO3, Cl, Mg, and SO4. The results obtained showed that the facies characterizing the study area was a combination of Ca–SO4 and mixed Ca–Mg–Cl. Hydrochemical approach based on the bivariate diagrams of major ions indicates that the origins of groundwater mineralization are the result of (I) evaporite dissolution; (II) cation-exchange reactions; and (III) evaporation processes. The WQI values range from 82.3 to 390.9, and therefore the water samples can be categorized into five groups: excellent water to water unsuitable for drinking. In global, 61% of the groundwater sampled had poor water quality, 18% were very poor water quality, 16% are unsuitable for drinking, and just 6% represent a good quality. However, the results of this paper indicate that most water is not safe for drinking and needs further treatment. Keywords WQI · Multivariate statistical · Essaouira · Groundwater quality · Hydrogeochemistry · GIS
1 Introduction Water is a fundamental human need and according to the statistics groundwater is the main source of drinking water for more than 1.5 billion people in the world[1]. With a better understanding of the importance of drinking water quality to human health, there is a great need to assess groundwater quality [2]. Moreover, it is a need for studies on how groundwater will be managed. For efficiency, the management and assessment of groundwater resources need an understanding of hydrogeochemical and hydrogeological features of the aquifer [3, 4]. Furthermore, groundwater quality depends on several components
such as topographic relief, rainfall, mineral dissolution, ion exchange, oxidation, reduction, human and natural activities, use of fertilizers and pesticides [5–8]. In arid and semi-arid areas, principally in coastal areas, an increase in the salinity is being confirmed in most of the major aquifers being used for water supply in coastal regions, which led to the deterioration in water quality [9–14]. This deterioration is due to the inflow of saline water because of over-exploitation of groundwater, and/ or mobilization of saline formation waters (combining with ancient seawater trapped in the sediments). However, the asse
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