EVALUATION OF GROUNDWATER AND TREATED SEWAGE EFFLUENT QUALITY FOR IRRIGATION IN SAUDI ARABIA | ||
| Journal of Soil Sciences and Agricultural Engineering | ||
| Article 3, Volume 28, Issue 2, February 2003, Pages 1513-1529 PDF (5.51 M) | ||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/jssae.2003.246113 | ||
| Author | ||
| F. N. Barakah | ||
| Department of Soil SCience, College of Agriculture, King Saud University, P.O. Box, 2460 Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia | ||
| Abstract | ||
| Comparative study was conducled to evaluate lhe quality of secondary treated sewage effluent (TSE) and groundwater of Riyadh region. Water samples from each type of water were collected from three sites at the four different seasons. EC of groundwater was significantly higher than TSE. Co~', Mg2', Na", Cl', HeO)' of groundwater was significantly higher than TSE. Both irrigation waters had low amount of NH; - N. N03' - N. Fe, Mn, Zn, and Cu which below the levels recommended for water quality. Bacterial populations of Daryiah and Waseel sites did not show any significant differences. however, their counts were significantly higher in Ammaryah site. There were no significant differences between groundwater and TSE in their content of bacteria, although TSE contained higher numbers of bacteria than groundwater has. Fungal counts were Significantly higher at Daryiah site as compared with the other sues. In contrast, Ihe highest density of streptomycetes was recorded at Waseel site. Fungal and streptomycetes counts were significantly higher in groundwater than TSE. Results also revealed that different microbial groups differed inconsistently between sites, seasons and irrigation type. The highest most probable numbers of different groups were found in TSE as cornea red to groundwater (1.3 to 22 fold higher than groundwater). Microbial communities appeared to be differed between sites where nitrifiers and sulfate reducers were found in high density at different sites than the other groups of microorganisms. Conversely, the density of denitrifiers and N2-fixers were significantly higher at Daryiah site lhan the other sites. Sutfate-reducers showed their highest density at Waseel site. Treated sewage effluent of Riyadh region has a good quality for irrigation and did not show any deleterious effects as compared to groundwater. Due to the presence of fecal coliform in this effluent which is used as indicators of sewage pollution, it can be safely used for irrigation the wood trees, forests and landscape. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Treated sewage effluent; groundwater; waler quality. microbial populations | ||
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