Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Spatial estimation of groundwater quality, hydrogeochemical investigation, and health impacts of shallow groundwater in Kabul city, Afghanistan

Hamidi, Mohammad Daud; Kissane, Stephen; Bogush, Anna A.; Karim, Abdul Qayeum; Sagintayev, Janay; Towers, Sam; Greenwell, Hugh Christopher

Spatial estimation of groundwater quality, hydrogeochemical investigation, and health impacts of shallow groundwater in Kabul city, Afghanistan Thumbnail


Authors

Stephen Kissane

Anna A. Bogush

Abdul Qayeum Karim

Janay Sagintayev

Sam Towers



Abstract

The management of groundwater in densely populated areas with no centralized water treatment is critical for the prevention of diseases and maintaining sanitation. Here, we determine the bacteriological and chemical characteristics of groundwater in Kabul city, a resource that 4.1 million individuals rely on. Groundwater samples were analyzed from 41 newly established piezometric wells across Kabul, and data were compared with the last detailed study, undertaken in 2007, to understand contamination trends in an area that has undergone significant development and social changes. Piper diagrams, Gibbs diagrams, correlation analysis, and bivariate plots examine the hydrogeochemical and natural occurring processes of groundwater. The average concentration of cations followed the order Na+  > Mg2+  > Ca2+  > K+, and anions HCO3− > NO3− > Cl− > SO42− > F with Gibbs diagrams indicating mainly rock-weathering influence groundwater chemistry. An increase in nitrate (NO3−) and E. coli indicates anthropogenic activities impacting the shallow groundwater quality, with significantly elevated nitrate (over 50 mg/L) and E. coli (up to 250 CFU/100 mL). The increasing presence of E. coli and NO3− in the shallow groundwater of Kabul city in turn suggests problematic links to the prevalence of waterborne diseases. Additionally, the water quality index (WQI) was used to assess groundwater quality, and rank its suitability for drinking purposes. The WQI analysis showed that less than 35% of shallow groundwater samples had good water quality. The findings of this study are crucial for the development and sustainable management of groundwater in the city. In short term, we propose interventions such as point-of-use (POU) water purification which may offer temporary respite for waterborne disease prevention. Kabul city requires immediate attention to developing sustainable groundwater management policies, expansion of the water supply network, groundwater quality monitoring, and wastewater management.

Citation

Hamidi, M. D., Kissane, S., Bogush, A. A., Karim, A. Q., Sagintayev, J., Towers, S., & Greenwell, H. C. (2023). Spatial estimation of groundwater quality, hydrogeochemical investigation, and health impacts of shallow groundwater in Kabul city, Afghanistan. Sustainable Water Resources Management, 9(1), Article 20. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40899-022-00808-9

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Dec 7, 2022
Online Publication Date Dec 17, 2022
Publication Date 2023-02
Deposit Date Dec 19, 2022
Publicly Available Date Dec 19, 2022
Journal Sustainable Water Resources Management
Print ISSN 2363-5037
Electronic ISSN 2363-5045
Publisher Springer
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 9
Issue 1
Article Number 20
DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/s40899-022-00808-9
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1183324

Files

Published Journal Article (2.7 Mb)
PDF

Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.






You might also like



Downloadable Citations