Agricultural Activity and Irrigation Impact on Pollution of Ground Water By Nitrates

الملخص

The study has been done in Kafaraya area of ​​western Homs countryside, where  area's inhabitants use the available underground wells for household and drinking, in addition to  agricultural activities of some crops around the target area such as potatoes, wheat and anise, where nitrate fertilizer is used largely by farmers without scientific bases to determine the required fertilizer dose for per irrigation, which causes the spreading of extra nitrate from the soil to the underground water due to the irrigation affect. The purpose of this research is to find solutions to reduce groundwater pollution with nitrates, and to be drinkable.

The study showed that fertilizer dose used without determining the amount of nitrate in the soil before irrigation, therefore it is necessary to analyze the soil to determine the quantity of nitrate fertilizer in the soil before applying a new one. The experiments showed that the soil is high permeability, which helps to accelerate the vertical drainage of irrigation water and rain towards the groundwater, carrying the dissolved nitrogen fertilizer in the soil with wastewater. This study showed that reducing the given nitrogen fertilizer dose with irrigation significantly reduces the pollution of well water with nitrates. This study recommends the use of  other fertilizers rather than nitrates in agricultural activities, in order to reduce the pollution of groundwater drinking wells in the study area, because of the high solubility of nitrate fertilizer in water.