Quality assessment of some water sources and soil under sea water intrusion conditions in North Nile Delta, Egypt

Abstract

Poor water quality mainly exists because of the increasing population and horizontal expansion which are associated with deterioration in sanitation and crop productivity. The present study is aiming to assess the quality of different water sources and soil under sea water intrusion along 3 directions in North Delta, kafr Elsheikh Governorate. A total of 45 water samples were collected from 15 loctions along 3 lines. The results showed that the salinity, sodicity and nitrate concentrations of irrrigarion water were increased toward the north due to the use of blended water for irrigation.The concentrations of Mn, Pb, Cd, Fe and Zn for all drains were varied from 0.20 to 1.36, 0.15 to 0.97, 0.0 to 0.2, 0.29 to 2.70 and 0.0 to 0.1 mgL-1, respectively. The lowest values of soil salinity and sodicity were recorded far from the sea, while the highest values were recorded near the sea. It could be rendered to the effect of artesian pressure of saline ground water near the sea, where the highest value reached 20.25 dS/m in line 1 and the lowest value was observed in line 3. Sea water intrusion were calculated for the studied groundwater samples and followed the decending order of: line 3˃ line 2˃ line 1. On the other hand, appreciable quantities of residual sodium carbonate (RSC) were -1.51, -7.99 and -34.1 for irrigation, drainage and groundwater, respectively. The water samples having high RSC can have an appreciable sodicity hazard.