الفهرس 
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Abstract
Land reclamation projects in the desert region are of vital importance for
development of countries. Egypt governments do a great effort to increase the
land reclamation. Heavy investments have been made to turn territories of the
unproductive desert into green productive areas to survive the highly increasing
rate of population. One of these areas is El-Salhia plain, which is located in the
eastern fringe of the Nile Delta area between (Long. 310 50/ – 320 20/ E, Lat. 30 0
35/ – 300 50/ N). It is situated south west Port Said on the common borders of
Port Said, El-Sharkia and Ismailia governorates. It is bounded by Ismailia Canal
from the south, Bahr El-Bakar Drain from southwest to northeast and Suez
Canal from the east. The groundwater from Quaternary aquifer beside the
surface water from Ismailia Canal and its subsideries represents the main water
resources for different purposes in this plain.
The objective of the present work is to study the hydrochemical
characteristics of water resources and to assess their suitability for different
purposes. Field study and different analytical techniques (chemical and
environmental) were carried out for the collected water samples (seven surfaceand
thirty ground-water samples).
Geomorphologically, El-Salhia plain is a part of the transitional zone
between the Eastern Desert to the south and the Nile Delta to the north. It is
fluviatile plain occupying the areas laying to the east of the cultivated lands of
the Nile Delta and extends to the Suez Canal. It is represented by area lying to
the north of Wadi El-Tumilate until the southern reaches of El Manzala Lake
with altitude varying between 40m at the south to about 10m at the north. The
northern and eastern parts of this plain are occupied by a considerable number of
scattered, elongated and shallow sand dunes. The surface is occupied by sands
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gravels, which are developed into a typical desert pavement. The coarse grain
size characterizing the sediments of this plain reflects a good hydraulic
characteristics, as well as a good environment for groundwater movement and
accumulations.
Geologically, The Quaternary deposits cover a vast area of the plain.
These deposits are represented by loose quartizitic gravels, sands, superficial
deposits, sand dunes, sabakhas, aeolian sands as well as fluviatile and
fluviomarine deposits. Early Pleistocene deposits (old deltaic deposits) are
dominating as coarse sand and flinty pebbles of igneous fragments. Tertiary
rocks in the study area are recorded in the subsurface represented by Eocene,
Oligocene, Miocene and Pliocene. Sedimentary succession in the study area is
strongly affected by structural elements. Faults and folds are the most
conspicuous structural elements affecting the landscape. Faults are dominantly
represented by an NE-SW and NW-SE directions of normal type. Surface folds
are detected out the area of study. In the subsurface, folds are detected by
geophysical methods in previous studies in the Abu Hammad and Abu Sultan
deep wells.
The most important aquifer in El-Salhia plain is the Quaternary aquifer,
which is mainly sand and gravel intercalated with clay and shales lenses. The
aquifer thickness increases northwards. The southward thinning of the aquifer is
due to E-W faults. It is a semi-confined fresh water aquifer, recharged from the
Quaternary Nile Delta aquifer in the west and the seepage from Ismailia Canal.
The depth to groundwater varies from 1m north El-Salhia to 20m near Ismailia
Canal. The transmissivity increases in El-Salhia plain from the east to the west
direction.
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Concerning with water chemistry of the collected Quaternary groundwater
samples of El-Salhia plain, the following characteristics are discussed:
TDS ranged from 642 to 4530 mg/l with an average 1921mg/l. only one
sample is fresh water (sample No. 3) and 41% belong to fairly fresh water
referring to meteoric water influence. About 33% of the samples are slightly
brackish, 20% consider brackish and only sample No.27 denote slightly
saline water, reflecting leaching processes accompanying irrigation.
Chloride-Sodium is the main water type, which represents about 74% of the
groundwater samples.
The main hypothetical salt assemblages comprise NaCl, Na2SO4, NaHCO3,
Mg (HCO3)2 and Ca (HCO3)2; representing about 53% of samples. This
assemblage is rich in bicarbonate salts which reflect the influence of fresh
meteoric water.
According to the rCl/ (rHCO3+rCO3) ratio, about 10% of the samples are
located in normally fresh groundwater, 17% in slightly contaminated, 37 %
moderately contaminated, 30% in injuriously contaminated and only
samples No. 19&27 are plotted in highly contaminated groundwater class.
The majority of the plotted groundwater samples (83%) occupy the
diamond field subzones (7) of piper diagram (1944), which reflects primary
salinity where Na+ and K+ exceeds SO4
2-.
There is a positive correlation between Na+ and Cl- indicating that the
majority of groundwater samples belong to Cl-Na type. Strong positive
correlations are also between TDS, Na+, Cl- and SO4
2-. It is clear that there
are also positive correlations between Ca2+, Mg2+ and total hardness, HCO3
-
and total alkalinity. A negative correlation value is between DO and BOD,
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as the increase of BOD lead to decrease of DO. Also, negative correlations
between DO and NO3
-&PO4
3-, as the increase of NO3
-&PO4
3- lead to
increase the growth of microorganisms which cause consumption of DO.
Regarding to assessment of water resources for different purposes the
following points are concluded:
According to WQI, Ismailia and El-Kassara Canals S1&S2 and 70% of
groundwater samples fall in good class which are recommended for
drinking. Italy Company and El-Batikh Canals S4& S6 and 30% of the
groundwater samples fall in poor class which must be treated before uses.
El-Hosiniah Canal S3 belongs to very poor class and Abu-El-Dahab Canal
and El-Qassassin drain S5, S7 are located in unsuitable class depending on
different standards of drinking water quality.
Most of the water samples are recommended for irrigation according to
the acceptable limits for RSC, MH, NO3
-, PO4
3- and trace elements, while
most of them are not recommended according to the acceptable limits for
Na%, SAR, excess Cl- and TH. Regarding relative tolerance of crop plants
to salinity, two samples (S1&S4) are suitable for sensitive crops, while
three samples (S2, S3& S6) and 17% of the examined groundwater samples
are suitable for irrigation of moderately sensitive crops. Abu-El-Dahab
Canal and El-Qassassin Drain (S5&S7) and 66% of groundwater samples
can be used to irrigate moderately salt tolerant crops. The remaining
groundwater samples (17%) are only recommended to irrigate salt tolerant
crops. So, the majority of analyzed water samples is unsuitable for irrigation
under normal conditions and requires special management.
All surface- and ground-water samples are unsuitable for paper and
textile industry according to salinity except surface water samples (S1&S4),
which are suitable for paper industry. For petroleum industry, all the
analyzed water samples are in permissible limits of salinity except
groundwater sample 27 which exceed limit 3500 mg/l.
All the collected water samples are suitable for construction purposes
according to the pH value and magnesium concentration except
groundwater sample No. 10 which is slightly aggressive (magnesium
concentration 100 - 300mg/l).
Management of groundwater resources involves following up of
hydrological studies by periodically continuous recording of water tables to
maintain change in the storage of the groundwater and expected salt water
intrusion. It also require stopping future drilling for groundwater wells in the
western part of Ismailia area to avoid over exploitation of groundwater
resources and replacing of groundwater by surface water to overcome the
continual DROP of water table and intrusion of salt water from Suez Canal. The
use of modern methods of irrigation for saving water as dropping and
sprinkling and use of the brackish and saline water in irrigation of selected salt
tolerance crops can save groundwater for future expansions. Construction of
observation wells can be used for monitoring quality of groundwater due to
seepage of water polluted to groundwater in future.