The Role of Nuclear Techniques in Water Resources Investigation, Protection and Management in the MENA Region

Eng. Mohammad Radwan Almomani

Water Expert

Amman, Jordan

Email: malmomanirad@gmail.com

Abstract: Keywords: MENA countries; precipitation; environmental isotopes; groundwater dating; protection; Non-Renewable; Exploitation

1 -Abstract:

The Middle East and North African countries are characterized of an arid environment, Also In the Arab region, because of already high level of water stress especially for drinking water supply and food imports.

This paper emphasize the role and importance of nuclear methods and technique of peaceful application in water resources studies, water supply, water and environment protection. It outlines future requirements and aspects of using nuclear techniques in various water issues toward better utilization and management of water resources, also highlights some examples and pilot areas of shared water from the MENA region and Arab countries.

Several studies implemented in the region some of them through a technical cooperation, as environmental isotope hydrology applications in most of the MENA countries for hydrological investigation, paleo-water and fossil groundwater studies, pollution and pollutants transport for water protection. This is mainly through a regional technical cooperation projects with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and cooperative involved organizations, also with involvement of other regional laboratories in the Maghreb and Mashreq Arab countries as the regional Isotope laboratory in the Water Authority of Jordan (WAJ). Actually the application included of stable isotopes of Oxygene-18 ( 18O), deuterium (2H), Carbone-13 (13C) and radioactive isotopes mainly for Tritium (3H) and Carbone-14 (14C), and others.

Taking into consideration the water scarcity, rainfall irregularity, variability of drought events,… water vulnerability to contamination and pollution risks, indicating that Integration of nuclear techniques to a quantitative and Qualitative models in water resources management can significantly reduce the cost of investigation and exploration and potential water resources exploitation..

The existing groundwater use in the MENA region caused severe depletion of the groundwater table and equipotential heads. These regional aquifers needs to be improved for a shared use of mega water basins in a regional basis, also highlight to sustainability and management of the non-renewable fossil groundwater.

It is essential, application other environmental isotopes as Chlorine-36 (36CL) for groundwater dating especially for the confined groundwater systems, so could be necessary sampling the Chlorine-36 (36CL) /or Uranium isotopes to address the mixing/flow of very old groundwater. Accordingly increased the use of environmental isotopes for effective management, especially in water scarce areas.

2-Introduction:

The Middle East and North African areas are considered the most arid areas where three quarter of the land is characterized of an arid environment.

Due to the increasing investment programs and water demand in the Arab world and in the MENA countries, that cause a pressure on the existing available water resources, a consequence of the over exploitation of the non-renewable groundwater resources .

The existing groundwater use caused severe depletion of the groundwater table and equipotential heads as well as a decrease in base flow and spring discharge and sometimes even the falling dry of springs. Added to these problems are the risks of regional conflicts because of the lack of "shared" management of cross-border waters.

Upper groundwater aquifers in the arid and semi arid environments are vulnerable to pollution from different sources. Groundwater mining, return flows from agricultural inputs and other human practices could cause groundwater quality degradation, either in relation to (EC) or nitrate (NO3) content,…etc.

Figure ( 1 ), Global Water Shortage and Stress on Water Resources ,

Environmental isotope hydrology applied in most of the MENA countries for hydrological investigation. These studies include of surface water and groundwater interaction, origin and mechanism of recharge, the renewable and non-renewable groundwater water, mixing processes of surface and groundwater , also a water percolation, specifying source of pollutants and pollutants transport within the unsaturated zone for water resources protection. Water artificial recharge, leakage from the dams and reservoirs, also in water and wastewater treatment.

Actually, some of the research programs mainly through a regional technical cooperation (TC) projects with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and cooperative involved organizations, regional research centers. Also with involvement of other regional laboratories in the Maghreb and Mashreq Arab countries .

In Jordan the Isotope Hydrology Laboratory in the Water Authority of Jordan (WAJ) has been an effective facility in conducting the investigations and acted as regional contributer for conventional isotope analyses for the Middle East countries. In view of that environmental isotopes have been effectively used in water resources investigation.

Hydrological Cycle: Precipitation and rainfall signature as well as air moisture contents that reflected in a water budget. Figure ( 2 ), Isotopes in a Hydrologic Cycle.

3-Environmental Isotopes:

Isotope hydrology is a nuclear technique that uses both stable and radioactive environmental isotopes to trace the movements of water in the hydrological cycle. Isotopes are atoms of the same element that are chemically identical, but physically different. They can be measured and quantified using mass spectrometers and alpha beta counters.

Most common isotopes used are stable isotopes of deuterium ( 2H), oxygen-18 (18O) and carbon-13 ( 13C), and radioactive isotopes of Tritium ( 3H), and carbon-14 (14C), Other

isotopes used for pollution control are nitrogene-15 (15N), and Sulphur-34 (34S) .During evaporation and condensation, the concentrations of oxygen and hydrogen isotopes in a water molecule undergo small changes, giving isotopic fingerprints, which varies according to the origin of the particular water body and its route through the hydrologic cycle.

Deuterium excess. The values of deuterium excess d, calculated by

d = δ D – 8 * δ 18O (Eqn 1)

are significantly higher than 10, the value estimated by Craig, 1961 for a large number of stations around the world ( Craig, 1961).

δD = 8 * δ 18O + 10, 2H = 8 * 18O + 10 The relatively high deuterium excess is a typical property of Mediterranean precipitation. The increase of deuterium excess has been attributed to isotopic exchange with the moisture originating from the Mediterranean Sea,

δD = 8 * δ 18O + 22, 2H = 8 * 18O + 22 which is characterized by lower relative humidity conditions (Dincer,1971, Yurtsever,1981). This is closer to the Local Meteoric Water Line (LMWL) in Jordan where the deuterium excess is 19 o/oo [14]. Actually the renewable groundwater resources in Jordan lie on this line

and very close to the Eastern Mediterranean Water Line [1] .

Origin of precipitation and Rainfall:

Isotope Data:

Global Network of Isotopes in Precipitation (GNIP):

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA's) Water Resources Programme and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) have been surveying the stable hydrogen and oxygen isotope and tritium composition in precipitation around the globe since 1961.

Isotopic data collected as part of the GNIP network serves as an indispensable database to inform a range of scientific disciplines, including, but not limited to hydrology, meteorology and climatology, oceanography and limnology, and in studies related to the Earth's water cycle and climate. Recently, GNIP has played an important new role in facilitating novel isotope research in ecological investigations, food authentication and traceability, and forensics.

A Short History of GNIP:

The Global Network of Isotopes in Precipitation was initiated in 1958 by IAEA and WMO, and became operational in 1961. The objective was a systematic collection of basic spatial data on the isotope content of precipitation across global scales to determine temporal and spatial variations of both environmental stable isotopes and tritium in precipitation. While the initial driver, was to monitor atmospheric thermonuclear test fallout through the determination of the radioactive hydrogen isotope Tritium, since the 1970s the focus changed to a become observation network of stable hydrogen and oxygen isotope data for hydrologic studies.

For over 50 years, GNIP has provided global isotope data for the use in hydrological investigations water resources investigation, planning, conservation and development. Although these primary objectives remain as an important feature, over the past decade.

Deuterium and Oxygen-18:

Globally, deuterium and oxygen-18 contents of the precipitation samples are measured by traditional isotope-ratio mass spectrometry and/or by laser absorption spectroscopy as ratios of hydrogen-2/1 and oxygen-18/16. They are expressed as the per mille (‰) deviation of the isotope ratio from the primary measurement standard, expressed in the typical delta notation (δ2H and δ18O). The primary reference measurement standard is VSMOW (Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water) as defined by Craig [4] and Gonfiantini [10]. The measurements reported in GNIP have a long term precision of about ±0.1‰ for oxygen-18 and ± 0.8‰ for deuterium, at one standard deviation.

Tritium Concentration:

The tritium content in each precipitation sample is given in tritium units (TU) and is corrected for decay to the middle of the month. One TU is defined as one tritium atom per 1018 atoms of hydrogen, equivalent to 0.118 Becquerel (Bq) per litre of water. The tritium half-life has been fixed as 12.32 years [15] for data since 2000. The analytical error for tritium analysis is given in TU when known. In several cases, the tritium values reported for a given station substantially exceed the expected levels, indicating local sources of technigenic tritium and/or contamination during collection of the samples (e.g. Bern, Switzerland or St. Petersburg, Russia).. Not all of the GNIP stations are used for tritium data, only a selected subset of representative locations .

Quality and availability of the Data and statistics

To date, more than 115,000 GNIP precipitation samples have been logged into the database. The quality of the stored isotopic information is periodically reviewed. The GNIP database undergoes frequent updating: new data, corrections or revisions received from participating laboratories are introduced at periodic intervals.

4-Major areas of application were:

Case-1: Origin of precipitation and Rainfall:

Isotope hydrology application in Jordan represent several decades since mid eighties in the last centery. also most of isotope samples have been analysed in the Isotope Regional Laboratory of the Water Authority of Jordan (WAJ) for 18O, Deuterium (2H), 13C, Tritium (3H) and 14C.

Atmospheric precipitation is the main input function to the majority of the hydrological and hydrogeological systems. Different type of precipitation and rainfall isotopic signature, as main input function to water systems.

Thus, knowledge of the isotopic composition of the surface runoff stored in the recharge dams is an indispensible parameter for the use of these isotopes as a natural tracer in hydrological and hydrogeological investigations.

Oxygene-18 ( 18O) & Deuterium ( 2H). Isotopic Signature of Monthly 10 precipitation stations network in Jordan is illustrated in Figure, ( 3 ).

Groundwater Artificial Recharge:

Precipitation and rainfall signature as well as air moisture contents that reflected in a water budget. Main areas of investigation in Jordan include evaluation and quantification of groundwater artificial recharge from surface water reservoirs,

Case-2: Groundwater Artificial Recharge:

Artificial recharge and surface water harvesting in an arid and semi arid environments has been given an importance and priorities in the MENA region.

Several AR dams have been constructed in Jordan within the last decades for groundwater replenishment.and to test the recharge efficiency.

Recharge mechanism from AR schemes to the upper groundwater systems, through the vadoze zone. Figure, ( 4 ).

Case-3: Water Resources Protection:

Nuclear techniques are widely used in environmental protection, water vulnerability mapping, watershed management. Isotopes are indispensable tools for instrumental tracing the pollutant migration and identifying pollution sources and origins influencing the groundwater systems. If combined with conventional chemical and hydraulic parameters amounts of infiltration and pollutant profiles can be quantified.

Well Location Map of AWSA drinking water supply well field in Azraq basin, Jordan Figure, ( 5 ).

The effect on long-term exploitation on GW quality, source of salinity in selected wells of Azraq basin, Jordan, Figures, ( 6 & 7 ) .

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Groundwater:

Renewable GW Resources:The stable isotopic composition of those upper aquifers is fitting with the Eastern Mediterranian Water Line (EMWL) representing the characteristic of present day recharge having a tritium contents ranging from 4-10 TU.

Non Renewable Groundwater: Groundwater main areas of investigation, the identification of renewable and none renewable water resources, deep and paleo groundwater aquifer assessment including brackish groundwater resources, geothermal water investigation in addition to the wide application of isotopes in hydrogeology.

Case-1: Groundwater Origin “Age” of the Upper aquifer systemHamad & Sirhan basins, Jordan

As it has been recognized in the upper aquifers (B5/B4) of chalky and marly limestone, chalk with chert intercalation (Eocene and Paleocene age) at an arid area of eastern part of Jordan in Hamad and Sirhan basins, fossil groundwater with very high groundwater ages of more than 30000 years and stable isotope composition characteristic recharge during previous

pluvial periods is found in boreholes up to 300 meters depths. This is in agreement with the results of shared Hamad basin study implemented at the beginning of eighties [9] .

Figure, ( 8 ). Stable Isotopic Composition of Groundwater in Hamad and Sirhan basins, Jordan, which refers to Global Meteoric Water Line, where no local recharge existed [23] .

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Fossil Deep Groundwater and Origin:

The environmental isotopic composition of mainly deep groundwater in Jordan was used to investigate the Paleoclimate and their response to climate change including the recharge conditions for the aquifer systems of Cretaceous, Jurassic, Triassic, Ordivician and Cambrian age.

Sandstone Aquifer in the Southern and central Part of Jordan:

Geology:

The Cambro-Ordovician Ram Sandstone Group resets unconformably on the peneplained basement complex. The Ram Group is widely exposed along the rift escarpment and in the southern desert, extending southward into Saudi Arabia.

The Khreim Group is of Middle Ordovician – upper Silurian age. The total thickness of the Khreim Group increases from west to east to reach up to approximately 600m at the outcrop in the southern desert.

The Lower Cretaceous Kurnub (K) aquifer overlies the Ram aquifer in Karak, Qatrana and in the south eastern part of the Dead Sea. In Shidiya area the Kurnub is separated from the Ram aquifer by Khreim layer. The Kurnub consists of sandstone, mostly medium to coarse-grained, with thin beds of siltstone and is sandy dolomit. The outcrop of the Kurnub extends along the slope of the rift escarpment in the area of the Dead Sea.

Figure ( 9 ), Hydrogeological Distribution units of Jordan .

Figure ( 10 ), Geological Classification of Rock Units in Jordan .

The main objective of the study and field investigation is to define the origin of the water in the Kurnub/Disi Sandstone Aquifer and whether it is rechargeable or not.

Samples have been collected from deep wells, (Shidiya deep well) at Jafr basin, (KD-wells Lajjun and Qatrana deep wells) at Mujib basin, and in the discharge area of Jordan Valley (TA1 and TA2) wells southern the Dead Sea , also S-90 petroleum well in the north at Ramtha area.

Samples Analyses: The Laboratory of Water Authority of Jordan (WAJ). Stable isotopes were determined by Delta-E Finnigan Mat Mass Spectrometer , while tritium values were measured after electrolysis by a Liquid Scintillation Counter (Packard 3253). Measurements accuracy is ±0.1 o/oo and ±1.0 o/oo respectively for δ 18O and deuterium, also ±1.0 TU for

tritium. Isotopic and chemical analyses.…,In Jordan the Isotope Hydrology Laboratory has been an effective facility in conducting the investigations and acted as regional contributor for conventional isotope analyses for the Middle East countries. In view of that environmental isotopes have been effectively used in water resources investigations.

The areal distribution of the stable isotopic composition of the deep water in Jordan made it possible to distinguish the region in various areas containing groundwater of different meteoric origin but of the same age range. It refers to a significant depletion in several aquifer systems as Shidiyya deep well of Disi aquifer (Cambrian-Ordivician age) in the south, Qatrana deep well no.1 of Disi aquifer in the sudden part, S-90 well K-Z aquifers (lower Cretaceous, Jurassic-Triassic age) in the north with deuterium excess ranging from 3.4 to 7.8 o/oo , the signature of Paleoclimate which is completely different from the Eastern

Mediterranean Water Line (EMWL) .This is in agreement with the TA-1 (CA3025) and TA-2 (CA3026) deep wells of Lower Cretaceous sandstone aquifer located at the southern Jordan Valley, south of the Dead Sea either in relation to the stable isotopic composition or the deuterium excess. The age of the groundwater of both wells of this confined aquifer as modelled with NETPATH is 31000 years.( Elnaser, 2000). The stable isotopic composition of 18O and Deuterium is very depleted and the deuterium excess range between 3.4-4.7 o/oo which is a signature of Global Meteoric origin.

The same case is applied on the deep brackish groundwater of Zerqa Group aquifer (Jurassic-Triassic age) at the sudden Jordan Valley escarpment northern the Dead-Sea. All these wells have no 14C content or very low as less than 2 pmc.

The isotopic compositions of the above mentioned deep aquifers has a signature of meteoric origin and paleoclimate especially those of them covered by a thick impervious layers and sometimes overlies with other water bearing formations. The stable isotopic composition of those upper aquifers is fitting with the Eastern Mediterranian Water Line (EMWL) representing the characteristic of present day recharge having a tritium contents ranging from

4-10 TU..The deep artesian water in Shidiyya well at 1960 meters depth is more negative by - 0.92 o/oo , -17.6 o/oo of 18O and Deuterium (2H) respectively, also the14C content is <1.5 pmc. The difference in stable isotopes between deep water and modern recharge in the mound areas has resulted from a change in climatic conditions , showing a possibility of different ancient climatic regimes during the late Quaternary.

Figure (11 ), Stable Isotopic Composition of Surface Water and Groundwater in Tana Basin in one of African Countries.

Nile Basin:

Based on outcomes of the project, 'Mainstreaming groundwater considerations into the integrated management of the Nile River basin", (2008-2015). [13].

Immediate project objectives:

Funded by IAEA and UNDP/GEF,

-Improve the assessment of groundwater-surface water interactions towards strengthening .

-protection of key ecosystem resources as well as the gains from and losses to groundwater on rivers and lakes in the Nile basin.

-Enhance the characterization of the role of groundwater in wetlands and of the Sudd Swamps in the regional water cycle.

-Improve the use of water balance models in estimating basin wide annual and monthly water balances in the Nile basin as an input to water planning and management.

-Facilitate the inclusion of groundwater considerations into integrated Nile basin water resources, planning and management activities and to ensure a common understanding of groundwater issues and analysis among the riparian countries.

Groundwater in sustainable management of the shared Nile Basin water resources: the role of Isotope Hydrology [13] .

By RAF8042 Project Team Callist Tindimugaya, Eric Cole, Pradeep Aggarwal, Bhishm Kumar, Seifu Kebede, George Darling, Yves Travi and Chukwudi Anyanwu.

Figures, ( 12, 13, 14, 15 ). Nile River Basin Tributaries & Isotope Hydrology Application,

Figure, ( 16 ), Nonrenewable/ Fossil groundwater of the Nubian sandstone aquifer in Libya. Also, well fields and main distribution water supply carriers [5] .

Taoudeni basin: ( shared basin at north African Countries),Diagram ( 17 ), 14C and 18O in Taoudeni basin ( Dakouri, 2003) .

Corrected age varying from the actual/ Holocene to the Pleistocene. This basin has a shared water between Mauritania, Mali and Burkino Faso and neighboring Algeria [25].

Figure, ( 18 ), Groundwater and artificial recharge at Sanaa Basin, Yemen [22].

5-Nuclear Technology and Water Treatment:

Nuclear technique widely used to improve the quality of life: Power generation, medical applications and biological research, industry, agriculture, food safety, environmental

protection, etc…

Trends and needs in nuclear technology utilization will be in the following fields :Water treatment: Empirical experiments in Jordan indicated promising use of ionizing energy irradiation for water treatment and water quality improvement. It proved to be efficient in the areas where conventional treatment methods failed to address. The resulting irradiated effluent meets the quality requirement for wastewater reuse and will therefore contribute in meeting the increasing demand in agriculture.

Applied research and studies carried out world-wide during the last decades prove that nuclear technique can be efficiently used in improving and controlling quality of water, including:

-Treatment and disinfection of contaminated drinking water supplies -Wastewater remediation and disinfection for wastewater re-use.

-Treatment and remediation of Industrial wastewater and environmental protection.

-Water Quality Improvement using Irradiation Technology

6-Discussion and Conclusions:

The environmental isotopes is used as a tool in master planning, helps assess future impacts of measures on water budget, also in the case of droughts and climate change coditions, consistent with overall socioeconomic development objectives.

The integration of nuclear techniques in water resource management proved to be indispensable in addressing the challenges of stress on available water resources.

Nuclear Techniques and Isotope hydrology is an important tool used world wide in water resources management to provide the information needed to make the right decisions today and for tomorrow. With increasing water demand and alarming global climate changes and expected negative impact on fresh water availability and water scarcity, nuclear and isotope technique is indispensable for addressing the challenges of stress on available water resources quantitatively and qualitatively. Also to be extensively used resources studies and investigations in many areas, including:

-Studying and exploitation of shared aquifers. -Studying and exploitation of deep aquifers and paleo-waters.

-Managing and protection of the aquifers under exploitation for their sustainability. -Development of none-conventional water resources including waste water reuse.

-Water resources protection and land use management.

7-Recommendations:

These regional aquifers needs to be improved for a shared use of mega water basins to a sustainable groundwater resources. Further investigations that needs to be integrated to a quantitative and qualitative models to reduce the cost of the investment and potential groundwater exploitation, also highlight a sustainable management of the renewable and non-renewable fossil groundwater.

It is essential, application other environmental isotopes as Chlorine-36 (36CL) for groundwater dating especially for the confined and deep groundwater systems, so could be necessary sampling the Chlorine-36 (36CL) or Uranium isotopes to address the mixing/flow of very old groundwater. Accordingly increased the use of environmental isotopes for effective management, especially in water scarce areas.

Develop and implement a knowledge management strategy in Arab and Middle East countries to enhance use and protection of isotope technique in water resources management and land use.

Establish a Regional Center for Isotopes Hydrology to provide high level services to all related sectors in Jordan and the region, including research and educational institutions.Upgrade the analytical capacity to include advanced isotopes and new technologies.

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