Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Assessment of Marginal Quality Water for Sustainable Irrigation Management: Case Study of Bahr El-Baqar Area, Egypt

  • Published:
Water, Air, & Soil Pollution Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Treated wastewater (TWW) is an imperative nonconventional water resource for reuse in irrigation to cope with the water shortage and agricultural expansion in Egypt. The Bahr El-Baqar drain in Sharqia, Egypt, is one of the main drains in the Nile Delta that receives various types of wastewater. Monitoring and assessing the drain’s water quality were achieved by collecting georeferenced water samples along the drain during the 2015 summer and winter cropping seasons. Chemical, microbial, and parasitic analyses were performed. Additionally, surface soil samples irrigated with the drain water were gathered from the adjacent area to quantify the main physicochemical properties. Water analysis results revealed that the concentrations of most trace elements were within international standards and the Egyptian allowable levels for TWW reuse in agriculture. Oxygen depletion was observed for all samples collected. The microbial analysis indicated that there was fecal coliform contamination (>1000 per 100 mL) in the summer and winter samples. Concentrations of PO4 and SO4 were within the permissible level for irrigation use, whereas NH4, NO3, and MoO4 concentrations were higher than the recommended values for reusing Bahr El-Baqar water in irrigation. Based on the soil analysis results, Cd contamination was observed, whereas the Pb concentration in soils was slightly higher than its normal range. Mixing Bahr El-Baqar water with freshwater and implementing appropriate on-farm treatment before the reuse are recommended as a prerequisite for reusing Bahr El-Baqar water for irrigation. Bio-diesel fuel and energy oil crops are recommended for the studied region.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abd El Razek, A. A. (2014). The mobility and speciation of lead and cadmium in Bahr El Baqar region, Egypt. Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering, 2, 685–691.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Abdel-Shafy, H. I., & Mansour, M. S. M. (2013). Overview on water reuse in Egypt: Present and future. Sustainable Sanitation Practice, 14(1), 17–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ali, H., Khan, E., & Sajad, M. A. (2013). Phytoremediation of heavy metals—concepts and applications. Chemosphere, 91(7), 869–881.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Alloway, B. J. (2013). Molybdenum. In B. J. Alloway (Ed.), Heavy metals in soils: trace metals and metalloids in soils and their bioavailability (pp. 528–534). Environmental pollution, 22. Dordrecht: Springer Science+Business Media.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • American Public Health Association, American Water Works Association, Water Environment Federation (2005). Standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater. Washington, DC: 21st American Public Health Association.

  • Ayers, R. S., & Westcot, D. W. (1985). Water quality for agriculture. Irrigation and drainage paper 29 (rev.1). Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bhattarai, S. P., Su, N., & Midmore, D. J. (2005). Oxygation unlocks yield potentials of crops in oxygen-limited soil environments. Advances in Agronomy, 88, 313–377.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Biswas, C. C., Sarkar, A., Rashid, M. H., Shohan, M. H., Islam, M., & Wang, Q. (2015). Assessment oftheirrigationfeasibilityoflow-cost filtered municipal wastewater forredamaranth(Amaranthus tricolor L cv.Surma). International Soil and Water Conservation Research, 3, 239–252.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (2016). Statistical yearbook. Cairo, Arab Republic of Egypt. Ref.No. 71–01111-2016. http://www.capmas.gov.eg. Accessed 15 April 2017.

  • Christou, A., Eliadou, E., Michael, C., Hapeshi, E., & Fatta-Kassinos, D. (2014). Assessment of long-term wastewater irrigation impacts on the soil geochemical properties and the bioaccumulation of heavy metals to the agricultural products. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 186, 4857–4870.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • ECP-501 (2015). Egyptian code of practice for the use of treated municipal wastewater for agricultural purposes. The Ministry of Housing Utilities and Urban Communities. (In Arabic).

  • El-Agha, D. E., Molden, D. J., & Ghanem, A. M. (2011). Performance assessment of irrigation water management in old lands of the Nile delta of Egypt. Irrigation and Drainage Systems, 25, 215–236.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Elbana, T. A., & Selim, H. M. (2013). Lead mobility in calcareous soils: influence of cadmium and copper. Soil Science, 178, 417–424.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Elbana, M., Ramírez de Cartagena, F., & Puig-Bargués, J. (2012). Effectiveness of sand media filters for removing turbidity and recovering dissolved oxygen from a reclaimed effluent used for micro-irrigation. Agricultural Water Management, 111, 27–33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Elbana, T. A., Ramadan, M. A., Gaber, H. M., Bahnassy, M. H., Kishk, F. M., & Selim, H. M. (2013). Heavy metals accumulation and spatial distribution in long term wastewater irrigated soils. Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering, 1, 925–933.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Elsokkary, E. (2012). Prospective strategy for improving quality of agricultural drainage water for irrigation. Alexandria Science Exchange Journal, 33, 305–313.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Environmental Systems Research Institute. (2014). ArcGIS desktop: release 10.2.1. Redlands: Esri.

    Google Scholar 

  • IBM SPSS. (2015). IBM SPSS statistics for windows, Ver. 23.0. Armonk: IBM Corp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones Jr., J. B. (2001). Laboratory guide for conducting soil tests and plant analysis. Boca Raton: CRC Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jung, K., Jang, T., Jeong, H., & Park, S. (2014). Assessment of growth and yield components of rice irrigated with reclaimed wastewater. Agricultural Water Management, 138, 17–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kabata-Pendias, A., & Mukherjee, A. B. (2007). Trace elements from soil to human (pp. 550+). Heidelberg: Springer Verlag.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Karaman, H. (2013). Identifying uncertainty of the mean of some water quality variables along water quality monitoring network of Bahr El Baqar drain. Water Science, 27, 48–56.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Loutfy, N. G. (2010). Reuse of wastewater in Mediterranean region, Egyptian experience. In D. Barcelo & M. Petrovic (Eds.), Wastewater treatment and reuse in the Mediterranean region (pp. 183–213). Heidelberg: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Misheloff, R. (2010). Integrated water resource management II feasibility of wastewater reuse report no. 14. Washington, DC: U.S. Agency for International Development–International Resources Group.

    Google Scholar 

  • NASA POWER (2017). National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Prediction of Worldwide Energy Resource (POWER)—Climatology Resource for Agroclimatology. http://power.larc.nasa.gov. Accessed February 2017.

  • Omran, E. E., & Abd El Razek, A. A. (2012). Mapping and screening risk assessment of heavy metals concentrations in soils of the Bahr El-Baker Region, Egypt. Journal of Soil Science and Environmental Management, 6(7), 182–195.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oorts, K. (2013). Copper. In B. Alloway (Ed.), Heavy metals in soils: trace metals and metalloids in soils and their bioavailability (pp. 367–394) (3rd ed.). Dordrecht: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ouda, S., Noreldin, T., & Hosney, M. (2016). Evapotranspiration under changing climate. In S. Ouda (Ed.), Major crops and water scarcity in Egypt—irrigation water management under changing climate (pp. 1–23). Cham: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Overseas Environmental Cooperation Center, Japan. (2005). Study report on comprehensive support strategies for environment and development in the early 21 st century—Arab Republic of Egypt. Tokyo: Ministry of Environment.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parnian, A., Chorom, M., Jaafarzadeh, N., & Dinarvand, M. (2016). Use of two aquatic macrophytes for the removal of heavy metals from synthetic medium. Ecohydrology & Hydrobiology, 16, 194–200.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Puls, R. W., Paul, C. J., & Powell, R. M. (1999). The application of in situ permeable reactive (zero-valent iron) barrier technology for the remediation of chromate-contaminated groundwater: a field test. Applied Geochemistry, 14, 989–1000.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Raes, D. (2012). The ETo calculator: evapotranspiration from a reference surface, reference manual version 3.2. Rome: U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, Land and Water Division.

  • Sato, T., Qadir, M., Yamamoto, S., Endo, T., & Zahoor, A. (2013). Global, regional, and country level need for data on wastewater generation, treatment, and use. Agricultural Water Management, 130, 1–13.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schulin, R., Johnson, A., & Frossard, E. (2010). Trace element-deficient soils. In P. S. Hooda (Ed.), Trace elements in soils (pp. 175–197). Chichester: Wiley.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Set of laws and regulations on environment protection (2012). Part1, eleventh edition. Alamiria publication. 2012/21943. (In Arabic).

  • Smolders, E., & Mertens, J. (2013). Cadmium. In B. J. Alloway (Ed.), Heavy metals in soils: trace metals and metalloids in soils and their bioavailability (pp. 283–311). Environmental pollution, 22. Dordrecht: Springer Science+Business Media. doi:10.1007/978-94-007-4470-7_10.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stahl, R., & Ramadan, A. (2011). Qalubeya drain system/Egypt environmental studies on water quality. KIT Scientific Publishing. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Report-Nr. KIT-SR 7578.

  • Stahl, R., Ramadan, A., & Pimpl, M. (2009). Bahr El-Baqar drain system/Egypt environmental studies on water quality. Part I: Bilbeis drain/Bahr El-Baqar drain. Karlsruhe: Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe GmbH FZKA 7505.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stottmeister, U., Wießner, A., Kuschk, P., Kappelmeyer, U., Kӓstner, M., Bederski, O., Mϋller, R. A., & Moormann, H. (2003). Effects of plants and microorganisms in constructed wetlands for wastewater treatment. Biotechnology Advances, 22, 93–117.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Trooien, T. P., & Hills, D. J. (2007). Application of biological effluent. In F. R. Lamm, J. E. Ayars, & F. S. Nakayama (Eds.), Microirrigation for crop production: design, operation, and management (pp. 329–356). Amsterdam: Developments In Agricultural Engineering 13, Elsevier.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2012a). Selected analytical methods for environmental remediation and recovery 2012. 600/R-12/555. Washington, DC: U.S. EPA.

    Google Scholar 

  • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2012b). Guidelines for water reuse. 600/R-12/618. Washington, DC: U.S. EPA.

    Google Scholar 

  • U.S. Geological Survey (2016). EarthExplorer. http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/. Verified October, 2016.

  • United Nations World Water Assessment Program. (2016). The United Nations world water development report 2016: water and jobs. Paris: UNESCO.

    Google Scholar 

  • UN-Water. (2007). Coping with water scarcity: challenge of the twenty-first century. New York: United Nations Note.

    Google Scholar 

  • Valipour M., & Singh, V.P. (2016). Global experiences on wastewater irrigation: challenges and prospects. In B. Maheshwari, V.P. Singh, & B. Thoradeniya (Eds.), Balanced urban development: options and strategies for liveable cities (pp. 289–326). Water Science and Technology. Springer International Publishing.

  • Vymazal, J. (2007). Removal of nutrients in various types of constructed wetlands. Science of the Total Environment, 380, 48–65.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wen, L., & Recknagel, F. (2002). In situ removal of dissolved phosphorus in irrigation drainage water by planted floats: preliminary results from growth chamber experiment. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, 90, 9–15.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • World Health Organization. (2006). WHO guidelines for the safe use of wastewater, excreta and greywater. Wastewater use in agriculture, vol. II. Geneva: World Health Organization.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zidan, M. S., & Dawoud, M. A. (2013). Agriculture use of marginal water in Egypt: Opportunities and challenges. In S. A. Shahid, M. A. Abdelfattah, & F. K. Taha (Eds.), Developments in soil salinity assessment and reclamation: Innovative thinking and use of marginal soil and water resources in irrigated agriculture (pp. 661–679). Dordrecht: Springer Science+Business Media.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This project is part of the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) and is supported by the CGIAR Fund Donors. The authors are grateful to Eng. Mahmoud Shahin (Ministry of Water Resources & Irrigation) for his valuable support in data collection.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Soils and Water Use Department, National Research Centre (NRC), Cairo, Egypt

    Tamer A. Elbana & Noura Bakr

  2. International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Cairo, Egypt

    Biju George

  3. Soil & Water Science Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef, Egypt

    Maha Elbana

Authors
  1. Tamer A. Elbana
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Noura Bakr
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Biju George
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Maha Elbana
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tamer A. Elbana.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Elbana, T.A., Bakr, N., George, B. et al. Assessment of Marginal Quality Water for Sustainable Irrigation Management: Case Study of Bahr El-Baqar Area, Egypt. Water Air Soil Pollut 228, 214 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-017-3397-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-017-3397-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation