Analysis and classification of bottled waters in the Maghreb Arab region

Abstract

This paper provides the first survey and assessment of the composition of bottled waters (BW) of Maghreb Arab countries. Parameters reported on labels of 74 (BW) brands were used as datasets. According to the Maghreb, EEC and WHO legislations and using PCA, HCA, KMC and ANOVA analysis in conjunction with analytical and empirical approaches, the study discussed the water quality and classification. The results showed that (BW) constituents comply with natural mineral (MW), spring (SW) and table waters (TW) standards for human consumption. It appears that Ca-HCO3 is the dominant facies in Algerian and Tunisian MW but in Morocco, they are Ca-HCO3 and Na-HCO3 facies. All Algerian and majority of Moroccan and Tunisian SW are Ca-HCO3 type, while both Tunisian and Moroccan TW are mainly Na-Cl type. Some of Maghreb BW are sulfated, chlorinated, bicarbonated, containing calcium, sodium and fluoride and adapted to a low sodium diet. Classification showed that BW could be categorized into four different groups. The first includes five brands of MW, rich in salts with Na + K-Cl facies. Meanwhile, two facies mark the waters of the second (Ca + Mg-SO4 and Ca + Mg-Cl), whereas the waters of the third and fourth are essentially low in salts and marked by Ca + Mg-HCO3 facies. HIGHLIGHTS Maghreb bottled waters are characteristic; Mineral waters have the highest salt content, followed by spring waters and then table waters.; Algerian and Tunisian mineral and spring waters and Moroccan spring waters are calcium bicarbonate facies.; Moroccan mineral waters are characterized by two facies; bicarbonate calcium and bicarbonate sodium.; Majority of Tunisian and Moroccan table waters are chlorinated sodic facies.;

Keywords

• hydrochemistry facies
• maghreb arab region
• mineral water
• multivariate statistical classification
• spring water
• table water