Salinity groundwater in eastern province saudi arabia - Term Paper Example

As such, the country suffers from the consequent desert effects, which include lack of enough clean water since there are no perennial rivers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia depends on surface water resources which include the annual rainfall of about 300mm that occurs between October and March in southeast Saudi Arabia (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2009). Moreover, other parts in Saudi Arabia depend on groundwater especially in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia.

Just like in any other part of the world, water quality is very fundamental for the development of civilization in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Indeed water quality helps in establishing a database for planning future water resources development strategies in the country. Notably, the central and eastern region in Saudi Arabia depends on groundwater for domestic and industrial purposes. Geologists and other environmental experts confirmed that six major consolidated sedimentary old-age aquifers called the Arabian Shelf are the main sources of groundwater in Saudi Arabia (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2009).

Depending on the geochemistry of the underlying aquifer, the groundwater from the Arabian Shelf contains dissolved salts and other components that contaminate the available water in the Eastern province of Saudi Arabia. Various factors define the quality and contamination levels of groundwater. Such factors include the irregular recharge in arid regions (Sharaf, 2012). Such variations occur in different times and in different places including the Eastern province of Saudi Arabia. Most assuredly, the chemical and physical components in the groundwater may be in significant levels that lead to adverse health and environmental effects.

In the Arabian Shelf, such constituents are in excess of their permissible limits that promotes health hazards and environmental problems (Al-Zarah, 2007). This