Nitrate Contamination in Wells Water: A Case Study of AI-Rehan Village in Syrian Arab Republic PDF

Keywords

Nitrate contamination, well water, groundwater, wastewater, cesspits, Al-Rihan.

Abstract

Most villages in the Syrian Arab Republic with populations less than 5000 inhabitantslack adequate wastewater disposal systems. These villages depend on individual household cesspits to discharge domestic wastewater. This has resulted in contamination of groundwater resources where groundwater is utilized for dringing purposes without treatment. Farmers in these villages use chemical and organic (manure) fertilizers in large quantities which has also led to further contamination of groundwater, in particular,with nitrates. To assess the groundwater nitrate contamination in some villages in Syria, a village called Al-Rihan has been selected for this study. This village has a population of 8000 and is located in the Douma area of the Damascus countryside. Nitrate concentrations in 15 water wells from this village have been monitored for five (5) months (March-July, 2002). The measured nitrate concentrations (as N03-) are as follows: range 40-122 mg/L, mean 55 mg/L and standard deviation 15 mg/L (N 75). More than 95% of the studied wells were found to contain a nitrate concentration greater than the permissible level. The major sources of nitrate contamination in the monitored water wells have been identified as: individual household cesspits, use of treated municipal wastewater for irrigation and unregulated use of fertilizers.