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235599

RECHARGE SOURCES AND THE CHEMICAL EVOLUTION OF GROUNDWATER, WEST ESNA, WESTERN DESERT, EGYPT

Article

Last updated: 22 Jan 2023

Subjects

-

Tags

Water

Abstract

The increase of the reclaimed land for agriculture, especially in the Western Desert of Egypt, aims to cope with the increase of the Egyptian population. The western region of Esna is one of the most promising areas where there are remarkable agricultural activities that depend mainly on groundwater. The present study aims at identifying the recharge sources as well as studying the chemical evolution of groundwater in the Quaternary aquifer which represents the main aquifer in the area. Twenty groundwater level measurements and analyses of the concentrations of trace elements and major ions in 23 groundwater samples, a Nile water sample, and an irrigation canal water sample were done in order to determine the sources of groundwater recharge and its chemical evolution. The subsurface sediment succession in some wells shows the impact of a clay lens on the groundwater salinity in the northwestern part of the area. There is also a significant water leakage from an irrigation canal into the subsurface aquifer causing a local rise of groundwater level. A shallow clay lenses cause water logging near a sewage station that discharges wastewater into drains to be used in the irrigation of a man-made tree forest. Contamination of the aquifer has been detected near the sewer station. This study proves that the main recharge source is the Nile system (the Nile and its irrigation-drainage network). The main geochemical evolution processes are: (1) freshening by Nile system waters, (2) cation exchange, and (3) mineral dissolution and precipitation.

DOI

10.21608/ejdr.2022.108881.1090

Keywords

groundwater recharge, geochemical evolution, West Esna, Egypt

Authors

First Name

Hesham

Last Name

Ezzeldin

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Department of Hydrogeochemistry, Desert Research Center, Cairo, Egypt

Email

h.ezzeldin@hotmail.com

City

Cairo

Orcid

-

First Name

Osama

Last Name

Aborisha

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Department of Geology, Desert Research Center, Cairo, Egypt

Email

osamaaborisha@gmail.com

City

-

Orcid

-

Volume

71

Article Issue

2

Related Issue

29976

Issue Date

2021-12-01

Receive Date

2021-12-01

Publish Date

2021-12-01

Page Start

267

Page End

286

Print ISSN

1687-8043

Online ISSN

2356-9875

Link

https://ejdr.journals.ekb.eg/article_235599.html

Detail API

https://ejdr.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=235599

Order

7

Type

Original Article

Type Code

117

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Egyptian Journal of Desert Research

Publication Link

https://ejdr.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

-

Details

Type

Article

Created At

22 Jan 2023