Towards Sustainability in Dry land Oases: Water Challenges and Quality

Towards Sustainability in Dry land Oases: Water Challenges and Quality | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Towards Sustainability in Dry land Oases: Water Challenges and Quality Athmane Khettouch, Mohammed Hssaisoune, Yassine Ait Brahim, Yassine Ez-zaouy, and 2 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4770242/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 4 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Drâa river basin (DRB) is a large arid area encompassing most important oases in the south of Morocco. Climate change, population growth and recently intensive agriculture activity have led to the overexploitation of limited groundwater resources aggravating the problem of water salinization. Therefore, this study aims to assess groundwater quality in the DRB using hydrochemical characteristics from various sources. The complex set of water quality information is simplified into two indicators namely the Water Quality Index (WQI) and Heavy Metal Pollution Index (HPI). Additionally, the suitability of groundwater for irrigation purposes are assessed using sodium absorption ratio (SAR), Residual Sodium Carbonate (RSC) and the permeability index (PI). The results show that the degradation of water quality is related to the high content of sodium and chloride which emerge as the predominant ions along the flow path. Fresher water (Ca-Mg-HCO 3 water type, low WQI and SAR scores), able to sustain local drinking and irrigation needs, are observed in the Upper DRB, while reducing ions excess and adopting agriculture tolerable to salinity become more imperative in downstream oases. The prevalence of hard, igneous and calcareous rocks imparts a general hardness character at a large scale and bicarbonates exceed the permissible limit in 82.30% of samples. However, sodium hazard was not associated with CaCO 3 and MgCO 3 precipitation (low PI and RSC). In some areas, nitrate contents imply anthropogenic contamination from local source of pollution, whereas the concentrations of heavy metals are more associated with the geological setting than anthropogenic activities. Drâa basin water quality index hydrogeochemistry salinization Morocco Full Text Supplementary Files TableS2.xlsx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Reviewers agreed at journal 28 Jul, 2024 Reviewers invited by journal 27 Jul, 2024 Editor assigned by journal 23 Jul, 2024 First submitted to journal 23 Jul, 2024 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-4770242","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":332542164,"identity":"821c03dc-bee5-495f-b0e1-075c970b2507","order_by":0,"name":"Athmane 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Climate change, population growth and recently intensive agriculture activity have led to the overexploitation of limited groundwater resources aggravating the problem of water salinization. Therefore, this study aims to assess groundwater quality in the DRB using hydrochemical characteristics from various sources. The complex set of water quality information is simplified into two indicators namely the Water Quality Index (WQI) and Heavy Metal Pollution Index (HPI). Additionally, the suitability of groundwater for irrigation purposes are assessed using sodium absorption ratio (SAR), Residual Sodium Carbonate (RSC) and the permeability index (PI). The results show that the degradation of water quality is related to the high content of sodium and chloride which emerge as the predominant ions along the flow path. 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