Assessment of surface water quality in a highly anthropised semi-arid catchment (Case of Wadi El Hatab Basin, Tunisia, North Africa)

Abstract

Anthropogenic contamination of surface waters is a critical issue in urbanised catchments, especially in Mediterranean environments  with scarce water resources and intermittent rivers. A combined hydro-geochemical and multivariate statistical methodology has been  applied to evaluate the surface water quality of Wadi El Hatab catchment (Central Tunisia). More than half of the 28 samples collected in  March 2021 exceeded WHO standards for sodium, chloride and sulphate contents. Most polluted sites are directly influenced by domestic  and industrial effluents that contaminate the river for kilometers. Principal Component Analysis and Hierarchical Ascendant Classification distinguished four contamination sources: water-rock interaction, domestic wastewater, untreated industrial effluents  mainly from paper mills and irrigation return. A Water Quality Index model indicated that 75% of the surface water was unsuitable for  drinking purposes; while according to chemical indices such as saturation index, sodium absorption coefficient (SAR), magnesium ratio  (MR) and percent sodium (%Na), 25 to 49% of samples were unsuitable for irrigation. Considering that water of Wadi El Hatab is used for  vegetable irrigation, serious public health issues may arise. The investigation demonstrated that a single representative sampling  campaign could be a useful way to identify contamination sources when interpreted with both statistical and geochemical tools.