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     Research Journal of Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology

Research Article   |   OPEN ACCESS

Groundwater Quality Assessment in a Coastal Sand Aquifer: Implications for Drinking Water and Agricultural Use

1M. Diedhiou, 1S. Cisse Faye, 1O.C. Diouf, 1S. Faye and 2S. Wohnlich
1D
Research Journal of Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology  2014  5:585-594
http://dx.doi.org/10.19026/rjaset.8.1009  |  © The Author(s) 2014
Received: February 14, 2014  |  Accepted: March 08, 2014  |  Published: August 05, 2014
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Abstract

In many countries, specifically those located in semi-arid zones, groundwater is the major source of drinking water, domestic and agriculture use. The present hydro geochemical study was carried out in the coastal sand aquifer of Thiaroye Dakar, Senegal. A total of 36 groundwater samples were collected from different dug wells, piezometers and boreholes in the study area to decipher hydro geochemistry and groundwater quality for determining its suitability for drinking and agricultural purposes. The analytical results of hydro geochemical parameters such as Na+, Ca2+, Mg2+, Cl-, SO2-2 of groundwater samples in the study area reveals that over 66% were found to be well within the safe range with respect to the world Health Organization for drinking water indicating that most of groundwater sampling sites are fit for drinking with respect of these parameters. The K+ concentrations show that 56% of groundwater is suitable for drinking water. On the other hand, NO3- concentration show high levels exceeding the maximum permissible limits for drinking standard at almost 61% of groundwater samples indicating groundwater which is unfit for drinking water thus suggesting the need for treatment or precautionary measures to use for drinking water purpose. The TDS and EC values of groundwater indicate respectively that 69.5 and 61% are suitable for drinking water. According to the irrigation quality parameters such %N, SAR, RSC, KR and Ca2+/Mg2+ ratio it was demonstrated that over 80% of groundwater samples in the study area are suitable for irrigation purpose. Furthermore, the interpretation of graphical plots such as Wilcox and US Salinity Laboratory for the classification of groundwater shows that most of the groundwater samples in the study area are suitable for irrigation purpose except for few groundwater samples.

Keywords:

Dakar, drinking water , groundwater quality, irrigation purpose , Senegal,

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Competing interests

The authors have no competing interests.

Open Access Policy

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

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The authors have no competing interests.
ISSN (Online):  2040-7467
ISSN (Print):   2040-7459
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