Study area

The Sohag Governorate covers part of the Nile Valley, Egypt on the reach extending from the northern edge of Qena Governorate at latitude 26°07′N to the southern edge of Assiut Governorate at latitude 26°57′N. It is bounded between longitudes 31°20′ and 32°14′E (Fig. 1a). The study area, incorporating the Sohag Governorate, covers an area of 11,022 km2. The length of the River Nile in the study area is 125 km, and the width of the valley ranges between 16 and 20 km.

Fig. 1
figure 1

a Regional geological map of the Sohag area (modified from TEGPC and CONOCO 1987) b Geologic framework in the Sohag area

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Introduction

Groundwater contamination is one of the principal environmental and public health problems in the Sohag area. Groundwater contamination sources in the study area include extensive use of agro-chemical fertilizers and pesticides and wastewater disposal. The Quaternary aquifer in the study area (Fig. 1b) is currently under contamination stress due to agricultural activities in the old cultivated and reclaimed lands as well as the impact of the development projects located in the desert zone of the study area (Fig. 2). Agricultural pesticides and wastewater have a major impact on degradation of groundwater quality in the study area.

Fig. 2
figure 2

Land use and development projects in Sohag area (modified from GASG 2005)

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Agriculture and pesticides

The entire valley is mainly used for agricultural activities except for areas occupied by settlement. The edges of the valley on the east and west flanks are marked by new cultivated fringes. Widespread reclamation activities have been started throughout the last two decades aiming at cultivating the low land and barren desert zone extending between the Nile floodplain and the Eocene limestone plateau on both sides of the Nile Valley.

The economy of the area depends mainly on crop production. Crops are cultivated in a 2 or 3-year crop rotation including winter, summer, and autumn crops. Winter crops include wheat, horse beans, barley, lentil, clover, onion, garlic, flax, chickpea, lupine, fenugreek, and vegetables. Summer crops include cotton, maize, sorghum, soy bean, sesame, groundnut, and vegetables. Autumn crops include maize, sorghum, and vegetables. Permanent crops include sugar cane, and there is also permanent production in gardens. Irrigation water is applied by the traditional method of flooding (basin irrigation) which occurs at a frequency of two and three times a month (Abdel Moneim 1992; Shamrukh et al. 2001).

Pesticides are used in agriculture to inhibit growth of various organisms. Pesticides include herbicides, insecticides, nematicides and fungicides which are used to control weeds, insects, nematodes and diseases (Wischmeier and Smith 1978). The application of pesticides, when combined with sensitive groundwater areas, can have a large impact on the water quality. Agricultural contaminants such as pesticides will dissolve in the irrigation water and infiltrate through the soil profile.

Although the use of DDT and other organochlorine pesticides was banned in Egypt many years ago, recent studies showed that six organochlorine pesticides residues (DDT, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, heptachlor epoxide and lindane) are found in cow’s milk collected from different villages of the study area (Dawood et al. 2004). Presence of organochlorine residues in soils that were heavily treated years ago is suspected to be an important present-day source (Fiedler et al. 2000). These pesticide residues have a potential health hazardous effect on humans particularly infants and children. Organochlorine pesticides persist and tend to bioaccumulate in the environment (Dawood et al. 2004). The occurrence of persistent organochlorine compounds in the environment is changing relatively slowly over a span of years (Watterson 1991). The most common effects of the wide spread of organochlorine compounds in the environment are birth defects, neurological effects and behavioral effects, reproductive effects and cancer (Windham 2002).

Urbanization and wastewater

The establishment of urban and agricultural communities in the wide deserts in Egypt is an important development for the twenty-first century. With the very high population density in the Nile Valley and delta, major efforts have been made by the government of Egypt to construct new industrial communities in the desert to act as new poles of attraction, and to create new job opportunities (El-Gohary et al. 2002). According to the 2002 census estimation, the total population of Sohag Governorate is 3.7 × 106 (GASG 2004) representing 5% of the Egyptian population. The forms of development in the area include land reclamation projects, new urban communities, industrial areas, and wastewater disposal sites in the desert zone of the Nile Valley. In the last few years, four artificial cities have been constructed: El-Kawser, east of El-Ahaiwa, west of Tahta and west of Girga. There are big factories in the area including a sugar factory, and soft drinks and clothes factories. Other small private factories are represented in the study area such as onion drying, sweets, macaroni and oil dehydration factories.

One of the major problems facing these new communities is the potential health and environmental hazard posed by industrial wastewater. Untreated wastewater discharged by industrial activities is often contaminated by a variety of toxic or harmful substances (El-Gohary et al. 2002). The main pollution source from municipal activities includes leakage from sewage systems and septic tanks, and probable release of wastewater from wastewater disposal sites. The main pollutant products of these domestic activities are bacteria and nitrogen compounds. The degree of leakage from sewage systems depends on the age of the system and its design. The individual septic tank (soil absorption system) is the main method of sewage disposal in rural areas. Seepage of sewage water is also probable from industrial factories in the study area that could lead to contamination of surface water as well as groundwater (EEAA 1997).

In the study area, eight sites have already been chosen for projected wastewater disposal at Tima, Tahta, El-Maragha, El-Dair, El-Kola, El-Manshah, Girga and El-Balyana (Fig. 2). Currently, two sites (El-Dair and El-Kola) are operating and the others are planned to be used in the future. The improper wastewater disposal at Sohag City (El-Kola and El-Dair sites) has the potential to contaminate the surface water resources (River Nile and irrigation canals) and the underlying aquifer. The groundwater at these two sites is critically contaminated chemically and bacteriologically (Ali 2005).

Objectives

To avoid degradation of groundwater quality imposed by long-term impact of municipal, industrial and agricultural contaminants, management alternatives are urgently needed. Determining vulnerability zones in the Quaternary aquifer would help planners and decision makers in deciding which areas need sensitive and extra care and for setting priority levels of management. Determining vulnerability zones is a primary step towards making a decision support system (DSS) for planners and decision makers.

This study aims to address the vulnerability assessment of the Quaternary aquifer system with respect to contamination from municipal and industrial activities and agricultural pesticides using the Generic and Pesticide DRASTIC GIS-based models. Groundwater or aquifer vulnerability to contamination is a concept for which several definitions and assessment methods are available (USEPA 1993; NRC 1993; Vrba and Zaporozec 1994; Gogu and Dassargues 2000). The DRASTIC aquifer vulnerability model was developed in 1987 for the US Environmental Protection Agency (Aller et al. 1987). The model considers a contaminant introduced at the surface, which moves downwards due to recharge at a rate equal to water movement. The vulnerability of the aquifer is assessed by examining intrinsic properties of the aquifer and vadose zone, the water table depth, topography, and recharge. The DRASTIC approach for quantifying groundwater susceptibility has been widely used in North America (Navulur and Engel 1998; Fagnan et al. 1998; Ducci 1999; Stark et al. 1999; Fritch et al. 2000) and around the world, including China, Italy, Portugal, South Africa, and Algeria (Menani 2001; Napolitano and Fabbri 1996; Dai et al. 2001; Shahid 2000; Lobo-Ferreira and Oliveira 1997; Lynch et al. 1994).

Geologic framework

The study area is a part from the Nile Valley which has been geologically investigated by many authors (e.g. Said 1990; Issawi and McCauley 1992). The various rock units distributed in the Sohag area (Fig. 1a) are composed wholly of sedimentary succession ranging in age from Lower Eocene to Recent. The main lithostratigraphic units in the study area are summarized in Fig. 1b.

Hydrogeologic setting

The Sohag area belongs to the arid region of North Africa which is generally characterized by hot summer and cold winter with low rainfall. Surface water hydrology of the area is represented by the River Nile, irrigation canals, and drains. The area gets the irrigation water from the River Nile and the main irrigation canals which take water from the River Nile upstream of Nag-Hammadi Barrages located ∼15 km south of the study area.

The aquifer system in the study area is formed by the alluvial deposits of the Nile and consists of two layers having distinct hydraulic properties (Fig. 3). The upper layer is a semi-permeable clay-silt, which functions as a semi-confining layer to the underlying aquifer. The clay-silt layer is laterally extensive, having greater thickness near the river channel and vanishing near the valley fringes where it is overlain by desert sands. The lower layer is composed of gravels and sands and forms the main aquifer, having high horizontal and vertical permeability. The lower boundary of the aquifer is composed of an extensive and thick deposit of Pliocene clays of very low permeability. The lateral boundaries along the sides of the valley are considered no-flow where the horizontal permeabilities of the formations and hydraulic gradients are small enough to justify the assumption that no flow occurs across these boundaries (MPWWR 1988). The thickness of this aquifer as well as its width differs from one locality to another (Farrag 1982). The groundwater in this aquifer is found under semi-confined conditions at the middle of the valley and under unconfined conditions at the fringes where the Nile silt is absent.

Fig. 3
figure 3

General hydrogeologic section of the Sohag area (RIGW 1990)

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The aquifer recharge is mainly due to applied irrigation water, seepage from the surface-water conveyance system and subsurface inflow across external boundaries. The main discharge components are discharge to the River Nile, outflow across external boundaries, capilliary upward flow from a shallow water table owing to evapotranspiration, and groundwater pumping from wells. The monthly average evaporation in the Sohag area ranges between 3.2 mm in December and 12 mm in June (Ibrahim 1996).

The groundwater balance for the study area was calculated from modeling results (Ahmed 2007). The inflow was calculated as 8.12E + 05 m3/day, storage was calculated as 3.03E + 05 m3/day, seepage from River Nile and irrigation canals was calculated as 2.69E + 06 m3/day, and recharge from excess irrigation was calculated as 3.56E + 06 m3/day. On the other hand, the outflow was calculated as 2.47E + 05 m3/day, storage was calculated as 1.20E + 05 m3/day, outflow into River Nile and irrigation canals was calculated as 5.73E + 06 m3/day, extraction from wells was calculated as 2.04E + 05 m3/day, and seepage into drains was calculated as 1.09E + 06 m3/day.

Methodology: DRASTIC vulnerability assessment

One of the most widely used groundwater vulnerability-assessment methods is DRASTIC, developed by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a method for assessing groundwater pollution potential (Aller et al. 1987). The acronym DRASTIC corresponds to the initials of the seven hydrogeologic parameters: depth to water, net recharge, aquifer media, soil media, topography, impact of vadose zone media, and hydraulic conductivity of the aquifer. These parameters are the most important mapable factors which control the groundwater contamination potential. The DRASTIC technique produces a standardized methodology which gives results suitable for screening regions with respect to groundwater protection, monitoring, and clean-up efforts. DRASTIC models may help delineate areas where pesticides, municipal and industrial contaminants may pose a greater threat to groundwater. The DRASTIC system is divided into two portions: the designation of mapable units termed hydrogeologic settings, and the application of a scheme for relative ranking of hydrogeologic parameters, herein called the DRASTIC rating. In the DRASTIC rating, each factor is mapped and classified either into ranges or into significant media types which have an impact on contamination potential. Each factor or parameter is assigned a subjective rating between 1 and 10 based on functional curves (Table 1). This rating is then scaled by a weighting factor ranging between 1 and 5, and the weighted ratings are summed to obtain the DRASTIC index DI as follows:

$${\text{DRASTIC Index (DI)}} = {\text{ D}}_{\text{r}} {\text{ D}}_{\text{w}} {\text{ }} + {\text{ R}}_{\text{r}} {\text{ R}}_{\text{w}} {\text{ }} + {\text{ A}}_{\text{r}} {\text{ A}}_{\text{w}} {\text{ }} + {\text{ S }}_{\text{r}} {\text{ S }}_{\text{w}} {\text{ }} + {\text{ T}}_{{\text{ r}}} {\text{ T }}_{\text{w}} {\text{ }} + {\text{ I}}_{{\text{ r}}} {\text{ I }}_{\text{w}} {\text{ }} + {\text{ C }}_{\text{r}} {\text{ C }}_{{\text{w }}} {\text{ }}$$

where:

Dr :

Ratings for the depth to water table

Dw :

Weights assigned to the depth to water table

Rr :

Ratings for ranges of aquifer recharge

Rw :

Weights for the aquifer recharge

Ar :

Ratings assigned to aquifer media

Aw :

Weights assigned to aquifer media

Sr :

Ratings for the soil media

Sw :

Weights for soil media

Tr :

Ratings for topography (slope)

Tw :

Weights assigned to topography

Ir :

Ratings assigned to vadose zone

Iw :

Weights assigned to vadose zone

Cr :

Ratings for hydraulic conductivity

Cw :

Weights given to hydraulic conductivity

Table 1 Assigned weights for DRASTIC parameters (Aller et al. 1987)
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The DI score is relative, with no specific units. The total scores for two or more settings can only be compared if all of the parameters have been similarly evaluated, and the weighting of each parameter is the same for each calculation. The site with the highest DI is considered the most likely to become contaminated.

Pesticide DRASTIC is a special case of the DRASTIC Index, which is designed to be used when the activity of concern is the application of pesticides to an area. The difference between the two indexes is in the assignment of relative weights for the seven DRASTIC factors. For each parameter there are two weights. The first is for the application of DRASTIC to generic municipal and industrial contaminants, whereas the second is for agricultural pesticides. Due to the presence of municipal, industrial and agricultural activities in the study area, the Generic DRASTIC and Pesticide DRASTIC GIS-based models were used in the present work for vulnerability assessment of the Quaternary aquifer.

The DRASTIC factors and data preparation

Preparation of DRASTIC factors was achieved through gathering data from different sources including geologic data, using groundwater flow model results of Ahmed (2007), a digital elevation model (DEM) of the study area, and published research and maps.

A DEM covering the study area was downloaded from the NASA (US National Aeronautics and Space Administration) website to be used for extracting the topography parameter. The digital elevation model of the study area is subjected to projection into UTM, cleaning and filling the voids before using and processing in ArcGIS 9.2 for deriving the slope parameter for the DRASTIC models. The 3DEM software and STRMFILL utility are used for accomplishing these steps.

Building the DRASTIC database

The different hydrogeologic datasets were arranged in a geo-spatial database using ArcGIS 9.2 for handling the DRASTIC parameters in a GIS environment. The different data and maps are digitized and projected into UTM Zone 36 N. The seven DRASTIC layers are prepared as raster grids of cell size 100 m (x, y), forming 684 and 785 columns and rows, respectively. The DRASTIC parameters include the following factors.

Depth to water table (D)

The depth from the ground surface to the water table influences the contaminant load that reaches the groundwater (Thirumalaivasan et al. 2003). This is because pollutants do not have as far to travel through the soil profile before reaching the groundwater if the water table is shallow (Brady and Weil 2002). The risk of contamination increases with a more shallow depth, while groundwater with deeper water tables have a lesser chance of contamination. The groundwater elevation map (Fig. 4) is used for depth calculation. In the study area, the depth to the water table ranges from < 5 m to 44 m (Ahmed 2007). The individual cells will be rated on a 1–10 standard scale, with 10 being the shallowest depth, and thus the most at risk from contamination.

Fig. 4
figure 4

Groundwater elevations (m above sea level) in the Sohag area (modified from Ahmed 2007)

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Net recharge (R)

Net recharge is the total quantity of water that infiltrates from the ground surface to the water table on an annual basis. Recharge is the principal factor for leaching and transporting contaminants to the water table. The more the recharge, the greater the chance for contaminants to reach the water table. The aquifer recharge is mainly due to applied irrigation water and seepage from the surface-water conveyance system. Warner et al. (1991) determined recharge through the clay (semi-confined) as 0.8–1.1 mm/day and through the unconfined part as 1.9–2.1 mm/day. This parameter will be rated on a 1–10 standard scale, with 10 being the highest recharge.

Aquifer media (A)

There have been many studies carried out in the study area and the Nile Valley in general to estimate the aquifer parameters such as the works of Attia (1974, 1985), RIGW (1980), Barber and Carr (1981), Attia et al. (1983, 1986), Abadi (1995), Abd El-Bassier (1997), Abdel Moneim (1988, 1992), MPWWR (1988), Warner et al. (1991), Abdel Moneim and Abu El Ella (1996), RIGW-IWACO (1989) and Ahmed (2007). According to Ahmed (2007), the calibrated hydraulic conductivity values ranges between 125 m/day at the middle of the valley and 82.5 m/day at the fringes (Fig. 5). This parameter will be rated on a 1–10 standard scale, with 10 being the highest hydraulic conductivity of aquifer media.

Fig. 5
figure 5

Zones of hydraulic conductivity for the Quaternary aquifer in the Sohag area

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Soil media (S)

The properties of soils control the amount of water that may infiltrate the ground surface and reach the groundwater (Babiker et al. 2005). Permeable soils, such as sand or gravel, allow more water to infiltrate to the water table, making groundwater more vulnerable, while less permeable soils such as clays, allow less infiltration (Brady and Weil, 2002) and there is, therefore, less groundwater vulnerability. Infiltration is the key factor in transporting agricultural contaminants from the surface, through the soil profile, to the groundwater.

To obtain the soil map of the study area, results of the soil surveys, borehole data and the works of Ibrahim (1995), Ali (2005), Abdel Rahman (2006) and Ahmed (2007) were used. The gathered data were treated and interpolated using ArcGIS 9.2 to obtain the soil types for the cultivated lands. Due to lack of soil data for the desert and reclaimed lands, geologic data were used for deriving the soil types. The final soil map was obtained by merging the two data layers (Fig. 6). Soils in the study area can be distinguished as follows:

  1. 1.

    Soils of the cultivated lands. The soils of the cultivated lands include sand, loamy sand, sandy loams, silt loam, loam, sandy clay loam, silt clay loam, clay loam, and clay.

  2. 2.

    Soils of the reclaimed and desert lands: Soils of these lands are presented in DRASTIC models by the lithologic equivalent. The desert and reclaimed lands include the following categories: (1) fine sand and silt intercalations, (2) siltstone, sandstone, and claystone, (3) sand, (4) gravel, (5) gravel and sand.

In this work, the soils are ranked according to their permeabilities on a 1–10 standard scale, with 10 being the most permeable soil.

Fig. 6
figure 6

Soil map of the Sohag area based on soil data, boreholes logs, and the geologic map of Egypt

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Topography (T)

Topography refers here to the slope variability of the land surface. The degree of slope will determine the extent of runoff of the pollutant and degree of settling (long enough to infiltrate). The slope of the land surface dictates whether water will run off the surface, or if it will infiltrate into the soil. Contaminants will similarly leave the area as runoff, or settle into the ground, eventually reaching the water table (Brady and Weil 2002). Topography also gives some indication of where pollutants will concentrate. Runoff from agricultural crops will be channeled from a higher elevation to a lower elevation, making lower slopes more vulnerable to contamination. The topography of study area was obtained from the DEM covering the study area (Fig. 7). Slope values are calculated from the topographic elevations using the Spatial Analyst Tools in ArcGIS 9.2. The slope values are rated based on the standardized 1–10 scale, with 10 being the lowest slope.

Fig. 7
figure 7

Topography of Sohag area as extracted from the digital elevation model (DEM)

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Impact of the vadose zone (I)

The vadose zone is the unsaturated extension of the saturated zone of the aquifer. Its materials, like the soils above, control the amount of water, and therefore contaminants, which penetrate to the saturated zone (Babiker et al. 2005). A high permeability such as sandstone, will allow more water to percolate through than a lower permeability such as clay-rich layer (Brady and Weil 2002), making the higher permeability aquifers more vulnerable to contamination.

The scheme is similar to that for the soil media (Aller et al. 1987), where clay-rich textures are impermeable and allow fewer contaminants to infiltrate, and thus receive a lower rating, while sands and gravels are very permeable and allow more contaminants to enter the groundwater system. The impact of the vadose zone is ranked on 1–10 standard scale, with 10 being the most permeable.

Hydraulic conductivity (C)

The hydraulic conductivity controls the rate of groundwater movement in the saturated zone, thereby controlling the degree and fate of the contaminants. This factor indicates the ability of the aquifer to transmit water which indicates the speed of transfer within the groundwater system. The vertical hydraulic conductivity was used in this context. The vertical hydraulic conductivities of the aquifer materials, as obtained from the calibrated groundwater flow model, are 57 m/day at the middle of the valley and 36 m/day at fringes (Ahmed 2007). High hydraulic conductivity values ranked as 10, and lower values as 1.

DRASTIC calculations and analysis

The hydrogeological parameter units were rated according to DRASTIC specified ranges. ArcGIS 9.2 was used for processing and visualization of the different data layers of DRASTIC models. Reclassify Tool was used to classify the different rates into 10 classes. Map algebra and model builder tools were used for calculating the DRASTIC and Pesticide DRASTIC models. The DRASTIC rating from each input layer was multiplied by the Generic DRASTIC and Pesticide DRASTIC weight for that layer and summed to determine the DRASTIC index. Further calculations were undertaken for deriving the classes of vulnerability and calculating the areas of each class.

Results

Aquifer vulnerability to municipal and industrial contamination

The Generic DRASTIC index map showed that the study area is characterized by different zones of vulnerability to municipal and industrial contamination. The Generic DRASTIC index ranges between 94 and 189. Four zones of vulnerability can be distinguished as low, moderate, high and very high (Fig. 8). The results showed that the Quaternary aquifer in the desert zone is characterized by the high and very high vulnerability to municipal and industrial contamination. At the middle of the valley, the aquifer is characterized by the high vulnerability class.

Fig. 8
figure 8

The Generic DRASTIC vulnerability classes

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Aquifer vulnerability to agricultural pesticides

The Pesticide DRASTIC index map showed that the Quaternary aquifer in the study area is characterized by different zones of vulnerability to agricultural pesticides. The Pesticide DRASTIC index ranged between 94 and 226, which is higher than the Generic DRASTIC index. The Pesticide DRASTIC index can be further divided into four classes as low, moderate, high and very high (Fig. 9). The aquifer in the reclaimed lands and the desert zone is more vulnerable than in the middle of the valley. Similar to the Generic DRASTIC, the aquifer in the reclaimed lands and the desert zones is characterized by the high and very high vulnerability to agricultural pesticides.

Fig. 9
figure 9

The Pesticide DRASTIC vulnerability classes

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The Pesticide DRASTIC index shows that the potential for contaminating groundwater with agricultural pesticides is greater than with contamination with municipal and industrial contaminants (Table 2). In addition, the DRASTIC results showed that 83% of the Quaternary aquifer is characterized by the very high vulnerability to municipal, industrial and pesticides contamination (Table 3).

Table 2 Vulnerability classes for Generic and Pesticide DRASTIC models in the study area
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Table 3 Percentage of areas occupied by DRASTIC classes in the study area
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Contamination risk in relation to development projects

As stated earlier, the development projects in the study area may pose a great threat to the Quaternary aquifer. Results of the DRASTIC models showed that nearly all the development projects are located in the very high class of vulnerability with respect to contamination with municipal, industrial and pesticide contaminants (Fig. 10).

Fig. 10
figure 10

The development projects in the Sohag area are located in the very high vulnerability classes with respect to municipal, industrial, and agricultural pesticides contamination

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The old cultivated lands and pesticides

Results of the DRASTIC models showed that the Quaternary aquifer underneath the old cultivated lands including the residential areas is characterized by the high class of vulnerability with respect to contamination with municipal, industrial and agricultural pesticides (Fig. 11).

Fig. 11
figure 11

The old cultivated lands and residential areas are located in the high vulnerability class with respect to municipal, industrial and agricultural pesticides contamination

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Discussion

The Quaternary aquifer in the Sohag area is shallow and characterized by high hydraulic conductivity. The main recharge to the aquifer is from excess irrigation water and seepage from irrigation canals. Soils in the study area and the vadose zone present a significant impact in facilitating transport of contaminants through the soil profile. Septic tanks and cesspools in rural areas pose a real threat to the Quaternary aquifer. The development projects in the desert zone of the study area represent a new source of groundwater contamination for the Quaternary aquifer.

The present study revealed that 83% of the Quaternary aquifer is characterized by the high and very high vulnerability classes with respect to contamination with municipal, industrial and agricultural contaminants. Results of the present study indicate that more attention and care is needed concerning management of land and water resources. Monitoring of groundwater levels and concentrations of municipal, industrial and agricultural contaminants is urgently needed.

The DRASTIC models are valuable and comprehensive tools for monitoring groundwater vulnerability at specific sensitive sites across a large-scale area. Management of contamination of the Quaternary aquifer in the Sohag area would be improved by the application of these models, allowing sensitive groundwater resources to be protected for continuing use in the future.

Recommendations for mitigation of contamination risk

For mitigating the contamination risk in the high and very high vulnerability zones, the following recommendations should be taken into consideration:

  1. 1.

    Prevent the use of agricultural pesticides in these areas and use other safe methods of controlling pests and weeds such as biological methods of remediation

  2. 2.

    Use well controlled wastewater disposal systems with accurate management and monitoring of wastewater release to prevent contamination from the wastewater disposal sites

  3. 3.

    Remove and/or stop the use of septic tanks and cesspools in the rural areas and use well managed sewage systems instead

  4. 4.

    Implement continuous monitoring of the environmental impact of wastewater disposal systems associated with industrial and new urban sites

  5. 5.

    Manage agricultural investment areas using modern methods of irrigation such as drip and sprinkler methods along with bio-remediation of pests and weeds

  6. 6.

    Monitor the municipal, industrial and agricultural contaminants in these areas to acertain the status of contamination and make corrective measures