hydrogeochemical specifications of Bahabad Yazd Plain Aquifer
Human development and expansion of economic activities have led to an increase of the demand for water and groundwater resources are one of the major and vital sources of drinking and farming water (Adimalla & Tallor, 2020; Asadi et al., 2020). Groundwater resources are more important in arid and semi-arid regions due to scarcity of water resources, location change, and higher temperature (Bahir et al., 2020). Fresh water withdrawal has increased by 1% every year since 2001, which is mostly due to increasing demands in different countries and mostly the developing countries. Many of the developed countries have a stable or trivially decreased withdrawal from fresh water resources (Amiri et al., 2014; Water and Jobs, 2016). In many developing countries people struggle to supply their daily needs that depend on water and fresh water in particular (Ishwar et al., 2014; Singh et al., 2017; Adimalla 2019a). Taking into account different parameters like quality, quantity, and temporal and location distribution of water resources, groundwater resources are among the most important and accessible water resources (Adamowski and Chen, 2011). Taking into account the relative sensitivity of groundwater resources as a key source of water supply, they have drawn more attention compared to surface water resources (Ersoy and Gultekin, 2013). In addition to excessive withdrawal, contamination of groundwater resources and a decrease in the quality have imposed risks to food security and economic development of countries (Fujita et al, 2013; Nazari and Joodavi, 2014). Excessive use of groundwater resources not only attenuates quality and quantity, but also causes land subsidence (Akbari et al., 2018). In general, quality of groundwater resources depends on the feeding source of the aquifer, precipitation, water level, and geochemical processes. It is also affected by contaminators discharged from human activities (Reza and Singh, 2010; Srinivas et al., 2013). For instance, nitrogen compounds found in fertilizers and septic and other wastewater systems leakage are the causes of high nitrate concentration in groundwater resources (Heaton et al., 2012; Wang et al., 2013; Me et al., 2015). According to the WHO, about 80% of human diseases are due to contaminated water (WHO, 2014). It is not possible to improve the quality of a contaminated groundwater resource in a short amount of time after identifying the source of contamination. Therefore, it is imperative to monitor quality of water resources regularly and find proper solutions to estimate and improve the quality of water (Hashmi et al., 2009; Adimalla and Venkatayogi, 2017). Prevention is the best approach to fight groundwater resources contamination (Kazakis and Voudouris, 2015).