Study of Water Pollutants in El-Mahmoudia Agricultural Irrigation Stream at El-Beheira Governorate, Egypt

Abstract

Background: Diverse types of agricultural, domestic, industrial, and municipal pollutants are discarded in agricultural water streams. These contaminants affect water quality extensively, therefore, current study aimed to scrutinize types of water pollutants in El-Mahmoudia water canal during winter, spring, summer, and autumn seasons.Materials and Methods: Organic pollutants and pesticide residues were analyzed using the gas-chromatographymass spectrometry (GC-MS). Heavy metals were determined by the atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS). Also, the physicochemical parameters of water samples were examined.Results: Results showed that residues of DDD, DDE, and dieldrin insecticides were detected in all seasons, while chlorpyrifos-methyl residues were detected during the summer and autumn seasons only. Moreover, non-targeted metabolomic analysis revealed the presence of phthalates, amino and fatty acids, and plant secondary metabolites residues. In addition, significant deterioration of the physicochemical parameters and heavy metal contents were reported compared to the safety guidelines of the Egyptian Irrigation Ministry, WHO, and FAO organizations. Conclusion:Current results found that agricultural and domestic pollutants were dominant in the water canal, which urge the need for more water treatment facilities to be established.

Screening for pesticide residues in soil and crop samples in Egypt

“…The variation of pesticide levels between the current soil samples may be returned to many factors that play an important role in the persistence and degradation of pesticides in the soil such as soil characteristics and soil environmental factors [39]. Also, levels of pesticides in soil depend on their levels in irrigation water as reported by many Egyptian studies who noticed that levels of pesticides in River Nile water varied according to the type of irrigation water and level of water pollution [40][41][42][43].…”

Surface water quality management for drinking use in El‐Beheira Governorate, Egypt

“…El‐Mahmoudia canal water quality conditions were investigated in some publications. Radwan et al (2019) reported that a significant deterioration of physical, chemical, and heavy metals pollutants, due to agricultural and domestic effluents was noticed. For biological conditions of the canal, Kheirallah (2015) stated that the water course from south to north has an increase in biological pollutants.…”