Application of drinking water quality index for assessing groundwater quality of the quaternary aquifer in el-Marashda area, Qena, Egypt

Abstract EN

In the recent times, especially after the country has cross over the unstable political circumstances and established a new political regime and governmental efforts have been done to reclaim and develop new agriculture areas around the Million and Half Million Feddan project.

In this issue, many settlements and new communities have been established.

This study aims to groundwater quality assessment based on the hydrogeochemical measurements, and drinking water quality index (DWQI).

The physico-chemical parameters indicated that the TDS value of groundwater samples varies between 176.56 and 2096 ppm.

Based on the analyses result of 37 samples, the water type is dominance of Na- K- Cl-SO₄, while only six samples represented in Ca-Mg-Cl-SO₄ water type.

The DWQI findings revealed that most groundwater samples were not recommended for drinking use, where about 57 percent of groundwater samples were unsuitable, about 30 percent of groundwater samples are extremely poor quality, and 5 percent of samples are poor quality, while the remaining samples (8 percent) are rated as high quality.