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Water Quality in the Gaza Strip: The
Present Scenario
January 2013OURCE
The Gaza Strip is
one of the most densely populated areas in the world, 4505 people per km² and
the only source of water is represented by groundwater.
The water quality in
Gaza is very poor and the groundwater is affected by many different
contaminants sources including soil/water interaction in the unsaturated zone
due to recharge and return flows, mobilization of deep brines, sea water
intrusion or upcoming and disposal of domestic and industrial wastes into the
aquifer.
Previous reports on
the water quality in Gaza discussed the high levels of major ions (especially
of chloride, nitrate and fluoride) in the drinking water.
Moreover, little or
no information is available for trace elements in the groundwater of the Gaza
Strip.
The sources of trace elements in groundwater could be natural and
anthropogenic. 58 wells were sampled during July 2010, and were analyzed major
ions and trace elements to check if the water quality is improving from the
previous report.
This study has
revealed that no groundwater in Gaza Strip meets all WHO drinking water
standards. The contaminants which affected the Gaza Strip are of different
types and they originate from different sources. The environmental conditions
are no safe for the population and some actions to improve the groundwater
conditions are necessary to safeguard the population.
Journal of Water Resource & Protection; Jan 2013, Vol. 5
Issue 1, p54
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