Bahir M., El Mountassir O., Chehbouni Abdelghani, Dhiba D., El Jiar H., Carreira P. M. (2022). Hydrogeochemical and isotopic assessment for characterizing groundwater quality and recharge processes in the Essaouira Basin, Northwestern Morocco. Arabian Journal of Geosciences, 15 (7), p. 603 [21 p.]. ISSN 1866-7511.
Titre du document
Hydrogeochemical and isotopic assessment for characterizing groundwater quality and recharge processes in the Essaouira Basin, Northwestern Morocco
Bahir M., El Mountassir O., Chehbouni Abdelghani, Dhiba D., El Jiar H., Carreira P. M.
Source
Arabian Journal of Geosciences, 2022,
15 (7), p. 603 [21 p.] ISSN 1866-7511
Groundwater is an important drinking and irrigation water resource in the Essaouira basin in Morocco. Population growth and intensive irrigation practices have become a stress on groundwater with decreasing precipitation, available groundwater is depleting, and its quality has also deteriorated. For this reason, 50 groundwater samples from the campaign 2019 were collected from the study area to assess its suitability for drinking and irrigation use. According to the Piper trilinear diagram, two dominant hydrochemical facies, Na-Cl-SO4 and Ca-Na-HCO3 types, were identified. The water quality compared to the standard values of WHO shows that the water of this region is not suitable for consumption. Irrigation groundwater suitability for the study area has been evaluated with various methods such as EC, SAR, SSP, KR, MAR, PI, Cl, and USSL diagram. Major ion plots authenticate that the groundwater chemistry is controlled by rock-water interaction, and geochemical scatter plots suggest that silicate mineral dissolution plays a dominant role in groundwater chemistry. As the groundwater is the major source of drinking in the study area, a proper management plan must be implemented before its quality deteriorates. It is imperative that preventive steps should be taken to reduce salinity. According to stable isotope data, precipitation is the main source of groundwater and surface water recharge in the study area.
