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Nitrate contamination and associated health risks of the Benslimane groundwater, Morocco

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Abstract

Consumption of polluted water has harmful impacts on human health. This study examined the quality of groundwater in the Benslimane area for drinking purposes based on the Water quality index (WQI), Nitrate pollution index (NPI), and Total risk quotient (THQ) for different age groups. A total of 120 groundwater samples were collected for physicochemical analyses. The results showed WQI values ranging from 157.7 to 472.7 and an average of 279.4, with a total absence of water of excellent or good quality, and about 62.5% of the groundwater samples were of very poor quality for consumption. Nitrate concentrations ranged from 1 to 270 mg/L with an average of 64 mg/L, and 56.7% had values above the World Health Organization safety level of 50 mg/L. The NPI showed that 78.3% of the sampled sites showed very high pollution as a result of intense anthropogenic activities. High contamination is observed in the north and east of the region for arboriculture, grapes, maize, and vegetables as opposed to cereals. The health risk associated with nitrates, based on oral exposure, was much higher than dermal contact. The total risk quotient for both pathways was 0.02 to 6.58, 0.02 to 6.12, 0.06 to 17.06, and 0.05 to 13.35 for women, men, children, and infants, respectively. A total of 65, 63.3, 82.0, and 78.3% of groundwater samples presented a non-cancer health risk for women, men, children, and infants, respectively. Therefore, this study can help identify contaminated areas in order to track corrective safety measures to control groundwater quality in the region and improve sanitary conditions.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Provincial Direction of Agriculture, Benslimane, for its support during the sampling period. The authors are grateful to all the personnel of URECRN-INRA in Rabat for their help.

Funding

Funding was received from National Institute of Agricultural Research for field work and laboratory analyses.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Microbiology and Molecular Biology Team, Center of Plant and Microbial Biotechnology, Biodiversity and Environment, Faculty of Sciences, Mohammed V University of Rabat, 4 Avenue Ibn Battouta, P. O. Box 1014, Rabat, Morocco

    Habiba Sehlaoui & Rachida Hassikou

  2. National Institute of Agricultural Research, Regional Center of Rabat, Research Unit On the Environment and Conservation of Natural Resources, P. O. Box 6356 - Institutes, 10101, Rabat, Morocco

    Habiba Sehlaoui, Houria Dakak, Abdelmjid Zouahri, Soukaina El Hasini, Hamza Iaaich & Ahmed Douaik

  3. Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Mohammed V University of Rabat, 4 Avenue Ibn Battouta, P. O. Box 1014, Rabat, Morocco

    Soukaina El Hasini & Ahmed Ghanimi

Authors
  1. Habiba Sehlaoui
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  2. Rachida Hassikou
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  3. Houria Dakak
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  4. Abdelmjid Zouahri
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  5. Soukaina El Hasini
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  6. Hamza Iaaich
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  7. Ahmed Ghanimi
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  8. Ahmed Douaik
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Contributions

HS involved in conceptualization, methodology, software, and writing–original draft. RH involved in conceptualization and supervision. HD involved in data curation and supervision. AZ involved in supervision and funding acquisition. SELH involved in formal analysis and review. HI involved in software and review. AG involved in data curation. AD involved in conceptualization, methodology, software, formal analysis, review, editing, and supervision.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Habiba Sehlaoui.

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The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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No animal species were used for this research.

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Sehlaoui, H., Hassikou, R., Dakak, H. et al. Nitrate contamination and associated health risks of the Benslimane groundwater, Morocco. Environ Geochem Health 44, 4343–4358 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-021-01186-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-021-01186-5

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