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Industrial contaminations and water resources degradation assessment in coastal city of Rabigh, Saudi Arabia

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Abstract

Following the industrial revolution that has begun in the eighteenth century, water degradation (one of the serious environmental degradation problems) has become an international concern that puts pressure on the pollution of the environment and ecosystem. The primary objective of this research is to examine the quality of water resources in the coastal city of Rabigh, Saudi Arabia. Sixteen samples of water from various sources like drinking water, groundwater monitoring wells, and agricultural groundwater wells were collected using polyethylene bottles. These samples were examined for water quality parameters (electrical conductivity, power of hydrogen, total suspended solutions, total dissolved solids, biological oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, dissolved organic, dissolved oxygen), minerals (chlorine ion (Cl−), calcium ion (Ca++), magnesium ion (Mg++), potassium (K+), sodium (Na+), sulfur (S), and sulfate (SO4−2)), and heavy metals (aluminum (Al), arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), cobalt (Co), copper (Co), iron (Fe), lead (Pb), and manganese (Mn)). To determine the spatial distribution of the parameters over the study area’s watershed, statistical analysis was performed using ordinary Kriging. During the present work, all samples from surface water and lakes are within permissible limits for all parameters studied, and no pollution was recorded. However, samples from groundwater monitoring wells concerning EC, TDS, As, Cr, Co, Pb, and Mn were above the national and international permissible limits showing that the pollution is mainly due to seepage/leakage, which is characteristics of pollution from landfill sites unless otherwise there is a transporting agent like flood. Agricultural groundwater wells have also been polluted with EC, TDS, Cl−, Na+, SO4−2, S, Al, Fe, Pb, and Mn in the study area. This study has identified that the groundwater of the study area has been polluted very well, and it has exceeded the maximum standard set by Saudi Arabia and the World Health Organization (WHO). A regular further study is recommended for an industrial city like Rabigh so that the wellbeing of the society is maintained.

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Funding

This project was funded by the Deanship of Scientific Research (DSR), King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, under Grant No. (G-102–155-1442). The authors, therefore, acknowledge with thanks DSR technical and financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Hydrology and Water Resources Management, Faculty of Meteorology, Environment and Arid Land Agriculture, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, 21589, Saudi Arabia

    Nassir Al-Amri, Bahradin Adss & Mohamed Elhag

  2. Department of Cancer Biology, National Cancer Institute, Cairo University, Giza, 12613, Egypt

    Amina Abdel Reheem

  3. The State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing, Aerospace Information research Institute, Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), Beijing, 100101, China

    Mohamed Elhag

  4. Department of Applied Geosciences, Faculty of Science, the German University of Technology in Oman, Muscat, 1816, Oman

    Mohamed Elhag

  5. Department of Geoinformation in Environmental Management, CI-HEAM/Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania, Chania, 73100, Greece

    Mohamed Elhag

Authors
  1. Nassir Al-Amri
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  2. Bahradin Adss
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  3. Amina Abdel Reheem
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  4. Mohamed Elhag
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mohamed Elhag.

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Responsible Editor: Amjad Kallel

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Al-Amri, N., Adss, B., Reheem, A.A. et al. Industrial contaminations and water resources degradation assessment in coastal city of Rabigh, Saudi Arabia. Arab J Geosci 15, 1048 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-022-09696-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-022-09696-x

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