Hydro-chemical inter-relationship between surface and shallow groundwater within the eastern side of shatt Al-Hilla, Iraq

Abstract

The investigated area suffers from the shallow groundwater conditions which causes serious damage to the soil and consequantley to the agricultural and civil construction activities. To examine this problem, five different tracks perpendicular on the Shatt Al-Hilla channel were selected hand dug wells within the area to collect and analysis water samples over low and high of water level conditions. Water levels of both water bodies and their inter-relationships totally controlled by the nature of operation of the Dora regulator which located at kilometer 51 from source of Shatt Al-Hilla. Water samples collected during April, both high and low water levels. The nature of these inter-relationship were varying along the selected tracks due to many local conditions such as, elevations of lands, operation of irrigational regulators, depth of water within the channel cross section, seasons of the water year, high and low water level conditions, climatic changes, soil conditions and the present status of the sewage system within the City of Hilla. According to the adopted international standards to evaluate the suitability of the surface and shallow groundwater for different uses (drinking, industrial, building and irrigation) indicate that all surface water samples are suitable as drinking water, in state of high water level, while in state of low water level some of hang dug wells are not suitable for drinking water. All water samples are not suitable for industrial purposes. All surface water samples can be used for building and most of the sallow groundwater samples cannot be used for building except some of hand dug wells. All water samples are good for livestock. Surface water is good for agricultural purposes, while the hand dug water samples are suitable for growing most types of crops