Assessment of the groundwater possibility and its efficiency for irrigation purposes in the area east of Qena, Egypt

Thirty-four groundwater samples were gathered from the area east of Qena, Egypt, to characterize their hydrochemical properties and evaluate their quality for irrigation. Moreover, hydrogeology and remote sensing data were integrated to estimate the occurrence of groundwater in the studied area. The studied samples were collected from the Quaternary and Nubian aquifers. Their analyses results revealed that all samples were categorized as alkaline-brackish water and their total dissolved solids are in the range of 1.77–9.62 g/l for the Quaternary aquifer and are in the range of 1.41–1.59 g/l for the Nubian aquifer. The sodium concentrations are in the range of 0.26–2.86 g/l representing the essential cation, while the chloride ion represents the essential anion extending from 0.56 to 4.98 g/l. The bulk of water samples (about 70.59%) are earth alkaline water as suggested by piper diagram, while the rest of samples are alkaline water with predominant sulfates and chloride and all water samples are chloride and sodium dominant as suggested by Durov diagram. The computed TDS values, SAR values, and Wilcox diagram demonstrated that the bulk of water samples are marked by medium to very high sodium hazards and very high salinity hazards, which cause issues and risks to crops if irrigated with such water without any enhancements. The results of groundwater recharging zones showed that the promising areas represent about 42.5% of the studied area which have a very high and excellent groundwater recharging potentiality; these areas contain a low topography filled with fluvial deposits. However, the areas of low and very low recharging potential represent only about 13.5% with high topography, high slopes, and fewer lineaments, where the precipitated water has little possibility to infiltrate. © 2021, Saudi Society for Geosciences.