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Hydrogeochemical characteristics and health risk assessment of potentially toxic elements in groundwater and their relationship with the ecosystem: case study in Tunisia

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Abstract

Sidi Bouzid basin knows for several decades a fast-growing anthropogenic activity and, consequently, an increase in groundwater pollution which attracted researcher attention. For this task, we performed an exhaustive study to evaluate groundwater geochemical evolution. Our research begins with analyzing the geochemical process, then determining the water quality indices and their impact on the ecosystem, and after that correlating between different compartments, and ends with the assessment of the human health risk toward NO3−, Fe, Mn, Zn, Cd, and Pb. The dominant facies of the groundwater in the study area are Ca-Mg-SO4 and Ca-Mg-HCO3 and are mainly influenced by evaporite deposits (CaSO4, CaSO4·2H2O, and NaCl). The pollution index of groundwater (PIG) displays values ranging between 0.5 and 4.5 indicating four classes of pollution (insignificant, low, moderate, and high). More than half of the samples (55%) belong to the low and moderate PIG classes. However, the results show elevated values of NO3− concentration; 76% of samples exceed 30 mg/L. Among the studied contaminants, the highest carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risks in study areas were related to NO3−. For all water samples, the risk levels for children were greater than those for adults. Lastly, the partial least square-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) shows that the chemical elements do not have a short-term potential impact of pollutants on ecosystems.

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Data availability

The datasets used and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are very thankful to the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and recommendations. The authors would like, also, to thank the members of the Regional Agricultural Research Center (CRRA) of Sidi Bouzid, the team of physico-chemical analysis laboratory of soil and water (CRDA), and the staff members of the International Association of Water Resources in the Southern Mediterranean Basin (Faculty of Sciences of Gafsa-Tunisia) for their help during fieldwork and when handling the chemicals analyses.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Water Sciences, Higher Institute of the Sciences and Techniques of Waters of Gabes (ISSTEG), University of Gabes, 6072, Zrig, Gabes, Tunisia

    Kaouther Ncibi, Rim Missaoui & Kkyria Wederni

  2. Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Sciences of Gafsa, Laboratory for the Application of Materials to the Environment, Water and Energy (LAM3E), University of Gafsa, 2112, Gafsa, Tunisia

    Kaouther Ncibi, Younes Hamed, Rim Missaoui & Kkyria Wederni

  3. Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Science and Research Building 1, University of Houston, Houston, TX, 77204, USA

    Younes Hamed

  4. Department of Earth Sciences, Institute of Architecture and Earth Sciences (IAST), University of Setif 1, 19000, Setif, Algeria

    Riheb Hadji

  5. Department of Environmental, Biological and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technologies, University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Via Vivaldi 43, 81100, Caserta, Italy

    Gianluigi Busico & Kaddour Benmarce

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  1. Kaouther Ncibi
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Contributions

All the authors contributed to the study’s conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Kaouther Ncibi, Younes Hamed, and Riheb Hadji. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Kaouther Ncibi and Younes Hamed. The reviewing and editing of the manuscript were done by Riheb Hadji and Gianluigi Busico. The software visualization was performed by Kaouther Ncibi and Kaddour Benmarce. The data investigation and data curation were made by Kaouther Ncibi, Rim Missaoui, and Kkyria Wederni. All the authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Kaouther Ncibi.

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Ncibi, K., Hamed, Y., Hadji, R. et al. Hydrogeochemical characteristics and health risk assessment of potentially toxic elements in groundwater and their relationship with the ecosystem: case study in Tunisia. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 40031–40048 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-25016-y

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