Characterization of groundwater quality destined for drinking water supply of Khenchela City (eastern Algeria)
AbstractIn spite of the abundance of water resources in the watershed of Khenchela region, the strong urban growth and the expansion of agricultural land resulted in a considerable increase in water needs. This fact exposed groundwater and surface vulnerability to an overlooked growing pollution.In this vein, this study aims to determine the global quality of groundwater oriented to drinking water supply in Khenchela city. It focuses particularly on looking for minerals, nutrients and salt concentration and to assess their spatial and temporal variability. This area has been the subject of several previous studies due to the importance of its watershed (hydrology, geology, geomorphology, bacteriology...). The dosage of the considered parameters revealed vulnerability of water of the North and the North Western part of the watershed to the strong mineralization and excess of organic minerals. This requires in the short term an obligation to treat this water before distribution. A permanent monitoring and the use of other evaluation means for quality protection of this vulnerable resource have been taken into account.
