Om-Mohamed A. Khafagy ; E. E. E. Khafagy , M. Abdelsatar and Mona M. M. Gabr( 2018). Water Quality Assessment of Agricultural Drains for Irrigation in Northern
Delta of Egypt
J.Soil Sci. and Agric. Eng., Mansoura Univ., Vol. 9 (10): 439 - 445, 2018
Abstract: The amount of water available to Egypt is limited and present water demands approaches that limit. For this reason, plans were suggested to re-use agricultural drainage water directly or often mixing with fresh water to extend the limited water supplies. The indiscriminate use of drainage water for irrigation as a result of freshwater shortage could impair soil functions and cause environmental pollution. This study aims to evaluate the suitability of wastewater from different sources, for irrigation purposes in the Northern Nile Delta of Egypt. Therefore, this study was carried out on three water drainage sources El- Gamalia , El-Serw and El-Harna drain with El-
Shoka canal as a fresh water source as the control along a year starting from May 2016 to February 2018. The EC, SAR and the concentration of some macronutrients and some heavy elements in the water of all sources are evaluated. Water EC and SAR value increased slightly from upstream to downstream of all irrigation sources in the study area. The quality of study drainage water from drains belongs to C3 S1 and C4 S1 classes and could be re-use in irrigation purpose under special management, while the water from El- Shoka canal belongs to C2 S1 in the study area. Phosphorus concentration in sample water from El-Gamalia drain only was greater than
2 mg L-1, which indicate this water can’t be used for irrigation purpose. Also, Nitrate –N concentrations in water samples from El- Gamalia drain only was between 5-30 mg L-1, therefore there is a slight to moderate degree of restriction when using this water in irrigation. While heavy metal ions concentration (Ni, Co and Cd) was greater than permissible levels at all selected water samples, except water samples from El-Shoka canal from a distance of 0 km to 4 km. While, Pb concentration was less than the critical limits (5 mg L-1). The conclusion from this study could be re-used of drainage water from drains of the northern delta of Egypt for irrigation purpose under special management.
Keywords: (Water, Irrigation, Drain, Drainage water, Water quality.)
