Assessment of some bacteriological and physicochemical properties of groundwater in al kufra area, libya

Abstract EN

Water is valuable natural resources and plays vital role to sustain the international economy.

The scarcity and pollution of ground water has become serious problem in the arid zones which should be addressed.

This study was carried out to assess the quality of ground water for the human consumption in the rural and urban areas of Al Kufra area, Libya which lacked sanitation services, resulting in the use of black wells and sometimes-old water wells as sewage drains.

It is possible to access sewage water to the ground water with many contaminants, causing contamination of groundwater in this area.

Ten ground water samples were collected from 10 wells in Al-Kufra during 2016.

The bacteriological and physicochemical parameters such as pH, Electrical conductivity (EC) and Total dissolved solids (TDS).

Calcium (Ca), Magnesium (Mg), Sodium (Na), Potassium (K), Chloride (Cl), Sulfate (SO4), Bicarbonate (HCO3), Nitrate (NO3), copper (Cu) and iron (Fe) were analyzed using standard procedures.

The results were compared with WHO and Libyan water standards.

In this study, the most of the parameters of the water samples were below the permissible limits and suitable for drinking purposes except some parameters in some wells.