Abstract
Hydrogeochemical characteristics and assessment of water quality investigations have been carried out at Abha, located in Saudi Arabia, where Al-Saad Lake represents a rare example of natural endorheic lake. The ecosystem within and around the Al-Saad Lake including catchment area is of great social, cultural, aesthetic, environmental and economic values to Abha. Sampling and experiments of lake water has been carried out with the aim of characterizing the main physico-chemical parameters, such as DO, EC, TDS, Mg2+, Ca2+, Na+, K+, SO42-, Cl-, HCO3, NO3- and F- concentration. The ordinary kriging (OK) method was used to produce the spatial patterns of water quality. The Result of DO (mean 5.38 mg/L) trend in Al-Saad Lake is not very encouraging as majority of the lake area is under DO stress or marginally above it. So, proper management strategies are needed to be formulated to protect flora and fauna of the lake. Furthermore, the chemical analysis results show the abundance of the major cations in the order Mg2+ > Ca2+ > Na+ > K+ whereas the abundance of anions are in the order SO42- > Cl->HCO3>NO3->F-. The result obtained in this investigation inferred that the cations in water i.e. sodium and iron are within the permissible limits but magnesium and potassium have exceeded the permissible limit. Whereas anions such as nitrate and fluoride are within the permissible range but chloride and sulphate have exceeded the permissible limits. The concentration of cation, magnesium (Mg) and potassium (K) in the lake water has exceeded the desirable range (30, 10 mg/L, respectively). This may be due to weathering and transported from rocks and particularly from sulphate deposits such as gypsum and anhydride and subsequently ends up in water. The concentration of anion, Sulphate (SO4) and chloride are above the desirable limit. The major source of bicarbonate are the carbonate rocks containing calcite (CaCO3) and dolomite (CaMg (CO3)(2)), Calcium (Ca) and Magnesium (Mg) can also be transported from Ca-silicates and Mg-silicates. The piper trilinear plot suggests the increase of Ca and SO4 contents is attributed to dissolution of gypsum and anhydrite, which are commonly found in the quaternary formations of watershed (wadi). Ion exchange, dissolution of calcite, semi-arid climate, alkaline condition and weathering are responsible for high concentration of ions exceeding the desirable limit of the study area.