Abstract
The quality of water from 388 wells in 6 regions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been investigated with respect to pH, total dissolved salts (TDS), nitrite, ammonium, nitrate, and faecal coliforms. Concentration of TDS varied widely, from 180 to 9350 mg L−1, with a mean of 754 mg L−1. Of the 388 wells, 72 (18.6%) were above the WHO limit of 1000 mg L−1. The levels of nitrate varied significantly, ranging from 0.0 to 95.2 mg L−1, with an average value of 20.7 mg L−1. About 7.7% of the tested wells had nitrate content above the WHO limit of 45 mg L−1, and 16% of the wells showed NH4 + levels greater than 0.05 mg L−1. Faecal coliforms were present in 21.4% of the tested well waters. The results indicated that significant nutrient and faecal coliforms contaminated of well water was occurring.
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El-Din, M.N.A., Madany, I.M., Al-Tayaran, A. et al. Quality of water from some wells in saudi arabia. Water Air Soil Pollut 66, 135–143 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00477065
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00477065