A Perspective on the Water Resources of Harirud Marghab and Investigation of the Quality of Groundwater in Rural Areas of Herat Province

1 Department of Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Konya Technical University, Konya, Türkiye

2 Department of Organic Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Eskisehir Technical University, Eskisehir, Türkiye

Email: ahmadi267071@gmail.com (A.W.A.)

*Corresponding author
Manuscript received January 26, 2024; accepted February 18, 2024; published April 10, 2024

Abstract—In terms of water resources, Afghanistan has the most suitable and safe water for drinking. Most of the Afghan population’s drinking water comes from groundwater. About 90 percent of these people use deep and semi-deep wells, springs, and karezes for drinking. Unfortunately, population growth and technological development in Afghanistan, particularly in the city of Herat, have resulted in groundwater contamination from industrial effluents and a lack of wastewater treatment plants, which affect groundwater levels. A study conducted by the Ministry of Energy and Water on the groundwater level in Herat city has shown that the groundwater level in some areas has dropped by 4 meters in 5 years. However, the main focus of this study is to analyze the groundwater quality surveys conducted by different organizations in the districts of Herat province to determine the current situation of groundwater at district and city levels. After data analysis from different districts of Herat city on some important parameters such as PH, conductivity, and total hardness CaCO3, calcium as CaCO3, magnesium as CaCO3, aluminum as Al, ammonia as NH4, copper as Cu, fluoride as F, arsenic (As), phosphate (PO4), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), nitrate (NO3), nitrite (NO2), zinc (Zn), silica (SiO2), TDS, Turbidity, Temperature shows that the highest value for CaCO3 is 204 mg/l and the highest value for Fe is 0.88 mg/l. To the range CaCO3 and Fe after the WHO is determined, respectively, 150 mg/l and Fe 0.10 mg/l with regard to some arsenic levels, Guriyan district is considered to exceed the standard.

Keywords—groundwater, water quality, contaminations, investigation, turbidity

Cite: Abdul Wahed Ahmadi and Nasir Ahmad Heravi, "A Perspective on the Water Resources of Harirud Marghab and Investigation of the Quality of Groundwater in Rural Areas of Herat Province," International Journal of Sustainability in Energy and Environment, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 12-15, 2024.

Copyright © 2024 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).