Degradation of water quality: the case of plain west of Annaba (northeast Algeria)

Abstract

In the world, the water quality is undergoing deterioration due to urban and industrial wastes, and intensive use of chemical fertilizers in agriculture. Unfortunately, as in most countries of the world, Algeria is experiencing a severe crisis of its environment apart from the problem of depletion of water resources. The plain west of Annaba is particularly subjected to a general industrial pollution. The pollution problem in this region has really started to become worrying not earlier than in 1980, when the economic crisis has led some industrial units to sacrifice the “Environment” criterion for the benefit of the production. We were particularly interested in this work in waters of the superficial aquifer and wadis like Boudjemaa, Bouhdid, Sidi Harb, and Forcha whose waters are most often used to irrigate the surrounding agricultural land. Comparison of analytical results from two periods – 2006–2016 for the: EC, pH, Ca2+, Mg2+, Cl−, NO2 and 2006–2010 for the: Fe, Cr, Cu2+, Pb+ show a degradation of water quality in this region, which represents a very vulnerable area with a risk to pollution of groundwater.

Keywords

• degradation
• plain - west of Annaba
• pollution
• water quality