Civil Engineering / İnşaat Mühendisliği
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/11147/13
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Conference Object Significant Geogenic and Anthropogenic Factors Concerning Contamination of Groundwater Resources in Afghanistan(Nevşehir Hacı Bektaş Veli Üniversitesi, 2017) Hayat, Ehsanullah; Baba, AlperIn recent years, the groundwater quality in Afghanistan has raised some concerns as far as very few studies exist about its quality. The main reason behind the little knowledge about groundwater quality is that the country is recovering from decades of war and instability. Being one of the main and reliable sources for drinking, public and private institutions have started some initial investigations from the last few years to examine groundwater quality through the entire country. Still, it will take some time to complete such a broad study. In this article, an extensive review of the literature about the groundwater quality of Afghanistan is conducted where the existing raw data is analyzed as well to obtain some important results and indicate them scientifically.Article Citation - WoS: 39Citation - Scopus: 47Quality of Groundwater Resources in Afghanistan(Springer Verlag, 2017) Hayat, Ehsanullah; Baba, AlperWater is the main source of energy production and economy in Afghanistan where agriculture accounts for more than 50% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). Access to safe drinking water is still a problem in the country, which has caused different health issues and even child mortality especially in rural areas. Groundwater is the main source of drinking water in the country. However, little knowledge is available about the quality of groundwater throughout the entire country, and its quality has not been investigated extensively yet like in other countries in the world. While most people think that consuming groundwater is a reliable and safe source of drinking water for health, the United Nations (UN) agencies report various kinds of waterborne diseases and even child mortalities due to drinking water quality in the country. In this article, significant geogenic and anthropogenic factors that play a vital role in groundwater contamination of the country are identified and explained. Different geogenic contaminations such as arsenic, fluoride, sulfate, and boron occur in several areas of Afghanistan that have a direct effect on human health. The water quality mapping for Afghanistan is completed for half of the country, which shows that groundwater is plagued by high levels of fluoride and arsenic in some areas. The water quality mapping of the other half of the country cannot be completed due to security concerns currently. Also, there are different kinds of waterborne diseases such as diarrhea, cholera, and dysentery that can be seen in different parts of the country because of anthropogenic activities which continuously deteriorate groundwater.