WASTEWATER REJECTIONS IMPACT ON GROUNDWATER QUALITY IN A SEMI ARID REGION. CASE OF TEBESSA AQUIFER

Mohamed BOUTERA, Abdelkader ROUABHIA, Daoud LAKHNECHE, Salah ZEREG

ABSTRACT: Groundwater is exposed, more and more intensively, to deliberate discharges of polluting effluents, sewage or storm water runoff in urban areas. Near cities, the sources of groundwater contamination are numerous and are related to many urban activities. The urban water is a source of contamination of groundwater by their concentration in organic and inorganic constituents. However, their origins can be complex and include stormwater, wastewater leakage networks. Leachates of municipal waste, septic tank are considered as sources of contamination and carry pollutants that have major environmental impacts on water resources available. In the Oued El Kebir basin in Tebessa, increased industrial and agricultural activities, and the alternative by-products of production or post consumer waste, make groundwater resources vulnerable. The plan changes leading to changes in groundwater levels by pumping in urban areas can also lead to contamination of interconnected flows. The impact may be a hydrological from substantial exploitation of the resource has an action on the hydrodynamic behavior of the aquifer. In this perspective, we try to examine the state of the groundwater resources of Tebessa plain, the last cut by the Oued El Kebir, which drains the wastewater from the entire urban area of the city and which location can contaminate groundwater.

Keywords: Groundwater, wastewater rejection, urban area, Tebessa aquifer.

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