Evaluation of agriculture activities on groundwater of al-foah area, north of al-ain, United Arab Emirates (UAE)

Forty eight samples from private and government production wells and two surface water samples were collected from Al-Foah area which is located to the north of Al-Ain area, UAE. The main objective of this study is to assess the chemical characterization of groundwater in the Quaternary aquifer of the study area. Analyses of groundwater salinity showed that about 18% of groundwater samples are considered as fresh water and about 82% are considered as brackish water. The progressive saline of groundwater might be might be ascribed to the effect of intensive agriculture activities. All groundwater samples are located above the line of seawater as observed from the relationship of Cl/Br vs. Cl, which clearly indicated that the excess of chloride could come from different sources. In addition, the positive correlation (r² = 0.8) between Cl vs. Br supported the argument that both Cl and Br might come from the same sources. One of the sources that release Br to the system might be the agriculture practices as observed from the positive relationship between K and Br. In order to test the fact of agriculture activities effect on groundwater quality, is measured in all groundwater samples. All the nitrate concentrations of the groundwater in the study area were less than 50mg/l except few wells which are located within the cultivated area. A trend of increasing nitrate with potassium supported the hypothesis that the agricultural activities are one of the main sources affecting groundwater quality.