Determining the quality of water in the Qash River Basin in Lattakia Governorate and assessing its suitability for drinking and irrigation

Abstract

This research focused on evaluating the suitability of water in the Al-Qash River Basin - in the northwestern part of the Syrian Arab Republic, northeast of Latakia Governorate, within the Northern Kabir River Basin - for various uses (drinking, irrigation), by collecting /8/ water samples distributed over the entire Throughout the research area and all the geological positions prevailing therein, during the year 2023-2024 and for three different and distinct periods of the year. Some physical and chemical analyzes were carried out in the laboratories of the Water Resources Directorate in Latakia, and the laboratories of the General Organization for Drinking and Sanitation in Latakia, and those results were processed, and we adopted the average value of the results of the three analyses, with the aim of determining the quality of the water in it, and knowing the extent of its suitability for drinking and irrigation according to the Syrian standard specifications and some standards. Globally approved.

The research concluded that the water in the area is mainly of the bicarbonate-sulfate-calcium-magnesian type through the application of the chemical composition relationship (Korolov relationship), noting that all the analyzed samples are fresh water, but chemically unfit for drinking according to the Syrian standard (2007). The values ​​of the concentrations of the cations and anions analyzed in it came within the permissible limits, with the exception of the sulfate and nitrite ions, which witnessed a slight increase above the permissible limit, but they are valid for irrigation purposes and for all agricultural crops according to the approved international standards (total dissolved salts TDS, sodium percentage Na%, sodium absorption rate SAR).