Physico-Chemical Analysis of Ground Water in Different Sites of Al-khums City, Libya

Deep ground water is an important source of water supply throughout the world. The dependency of people on ground water has increased in the past few decades due to tremendous increase in crop production, population and industrialization. Thus regular monitoring of deep ground water becomes very essential. The present study was carried out to assess deep tubewell ground water quality of Al-khums city, situated on Mediterranean Sea coast of Libya. To study various water quality parameters, ground water samples from four major sites, (0.3-8 kms away from sea shore) of the city were collected in summer season (months of April-May). All the samples were analysed for major physico-chemical parameters: temperature, pH, electric conductivity (EC), total dissolved solids (TDS), total alkalinity (TA), total hardness (TH), Na+, K+, Cl- by using standard analytical methods. Results showed that the water quality status was found to vary place to place. The results were analysed and compared with Libyan Standard No.82 for Drinking Water and WHO Water Quality Guidelines. The results revealed that the ground water was not suitable for drinking as well as domestic purposes due to significant variation of most of the physico-chemicals data from the standard permissible limit which was maximum in water samples collected from nearby coastal areas. It is concluded from this study that the ground water of the area needs a substantial degree of purification treatment before using for drinking and domestic purposes.