The Impact of the Groundwater Salinity and Alkalinity on the Quality of Agricultural Soils in the Coastal Chaouia, Morocco

Abstract

The Coastal Chaouia region is located south of the Casablanca city (Morocco). Since the 70s, groundwater has been used intensively for irrigation, previously for growing citrus and currently for vegetables and forages. The increase of irrigated soils by pumping has induced environmental problems such as the degradation of groundwater quality and salt water intrusion. For these reasons, this work aims to study the impact of the irrigation water quality upon the agricultural soils. 71 samples for well water and soil were taken to represent the whole area of our study. With 3 different zones (0-1.8Km, 1.8-4.5Km, 4.5-11Km from the coast). The analyzed parameters are salinity and pH. The results show firstly, that the soil pH average values decrease for the three zones with 7.73, 7.57, and 7.52, respectively. However, the water pH averages vary from 7.24 to 7.49. For the soil electrical conductivity, it represents a light decrease moving from the nearest zone to the sea to the far one (average of 3.54, 2.66, and 2.33, respectively). Similar result is for observed water electrical conductivity with average of 6.83, 5.30, and 2.06, respectively, for the three zones. The analyses of the soil and water salinity show that both salinities decreased moving from the coast to inland. Richard and Wilcox charts have confirmed the strong mineralization and the poor quality of most of the well water which are close to the sea.

Keywords

• soil
• irrigation
• salinity
• well water
• coastal chaouia