Water Balance and Effect of Irrigated Agricola True on the Water Quality in Mathura Area
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Date
2005-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The study area, Metehara to Nura era, covers a total area of 777 km2 In this area,
mechanized farms of sugar cane and citrus fruits are found and more than 12,000
workers .depend their lives on the plantations. Though the main source of water for
domestic purposes is Awash River, there are some boreholes which serve to fulfill the
needs of the society. One purpose of this work is to determine the groundwater potential
for the area. Accordingly, water balance calculation for the area was carried out and
groundwater recharge of the area was calculated to be 2 Mm3 of water annually, The
actual evapotranspiration estimation gave a value of 522 mm while the mean annual
rainfall' of the area is 593 mm. The runoff over the study area was determined and
resulted value of 52 Million cubic meter of water was obtained.
Total dissolved solids (TD8) value shows an increasing trend in groundwaters towards
the lake. Beseka Lake has the highest concentration of TD8 showing that it is highly
mineralized. Fluoride concentration in groundwaters shows variation where the highest
values were observed on boreholes close to Fentale Mountain. The fluoride
concentration of Beseka Lake also has high (as high as 32.7 mg/l). High nitrate
concentrations (as high as 96.8 mg/l) were observed on boreholes located inside the
farms (most probably due to the application of fertilizers) and also in places where there
is an increased number of population and this increase in nitrate concentration in
densely populated areas is probably the effect of septic tanks
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Hydrology