A model of hydrologic interpretation of tritium content of groundwater in Egypt

Abstract EN

In this paper a model was developed to estimate the mean residence time of tritium in groundwater in Egypt.

The mean residence time was evaluated by assuming a phreatic aquifer (unconfined) and a completely mixed reservior.

The tritium input concentration function was reconstructed from tritium content of Nile water in the time period 1950-1989 which reached a maximum value of 400 T.

U.

in the mid sixties.

The application of this model to a case example of drinking water in Greater Cairo revealed that the mean residence time in some wells is very high (hundreds of years)while other wells are charcterized with low values of mean residence time.

The higher values of mean residence time point out to wells with remote possibility of groundwater contamination as water was away from contact with surface water for a long period of time.