The Study of some Physicochemical and Microbiological Properties in Water Wells at Rabigh Governate, Saudi Arabia

This study was conducted to analyze water wells in seven sites lie along a valley that discharges into the Red Sea at Rabigh province in the Western Region of Saudi Arabia. The analysis was conducted to evaluate and determine whether the water in the study area is suitable for drinking and agricultural uses. Nevertheless, the study included some of the physical, chemical, and microbiological characteristics. While the physical characteristic included odor, taste, and color, however, the chemical characteristics included the pH, Electric conductivity (EC), Turbidity, Total Hardness (TH), Total Dissolved Salts (Solids) (TDS), ammonium (NH4-N), nitrates (NO3-N), nitrites (NO3-N), and bicarbonates (HCO3). In addition to microbiological aspects like the water concentrations of Total Coliform Bacteria (TCB) and the Fecal Coliform Bacteria (FCB). However, in the present study, our results indicated clear variations in the levels of physical and chemical concentrations. It was found that the levels of ammonium (NH4-N), nitrates (NO3-N), nitrites (NO3-N), and bicarbonates (HCO3) at all sites have levels below the standards recommended by the international and local organizations. The only exception was found at Rabigh and Colia, in which the levels of these parameters exceeded the permissible limits recommended by these organizations. Regarding the concentrations of the Total Coliform Bacteria and Fecal Coliform Bacteria, the water wells at all sites are acceptable for both drinking and agricultural use due to their concentrations were below the recommended standards. In this paper, we recommended that the quality of drinking water must be checked at regular time intervals and further studies are needed in the future to monitor the pollution in the study area.