The demand for water has rapidly increased over the past few years and this has resulted in water scarcity in many parts of the world. In arid zones, water is a rare and precious resource. It plays an important role for society, economy and ecology developments. Groundwater is the important source of water used for human utilization and for both industrial and agricultural activities in regions where surface water is scarce (Delgado et al.
However, soil type as well as proper selection of plants should be taken into consideration. On the other hand, most groundwater is unsuitable for irrigation purposes based on sodium and salinity hazards. A comparison of groundwater quality in relation to drinking water standards showed that most of the groundwater samples were unsuitable for drinking purposes. The studied groundwater samples were found to be oversaturated with carbonate minerals and undersaturated with evaporates minerals. Geochemical modelling approach was used to calculate the saturation state of some selected minerals, i.e., explaining the dissolution and precipitation reactions occurring in the groundwater. The dominant factors in controlling the groundwater hydrogeochemistry are evaporation and weathering in the study area. The results are correlated with standards classifications to deduce the hydrogeo-chemical phenomena. Results indicated that the spatial distribution of TDS, EC values and major ions in these groundwater samples considerably differ from one site to another mainly due to the lithological variations of the area. For this purpose, 98 samples were collected from the scattered shallow wells in the study area. Total dissolved solid (TDS), sodium adsorption ratio, residual sodium bicarbonate, permeability index and magnesium ratio were used for irrigation suitability assessment.
The physicochemical parameters, including major cation and anion compositions, pH, total dissolved solid and electrical conductivity, were used to assess the suitability of groundwater quality for drinking purpose by comparing with the WHO and Iraqi standards. The present study focused on assessing the groundwater quality of the shallow aquifer in the northeastern Wasit Governorate, Iraq.
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