Mostafa Abdel Mohsen El Gammal^1,2 , Sami Shabeb^1,3 , Mohamed Guitouni¹

1. Fisheries Research Center, Easter Province, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
2. National Institute of Research and Physical-Chemical Analysis (INRAP), Tunisia
3. Center laboratory for aquaculture research (CLAR), Agriculture Research Center (ARC), Egypt
Author    Correspondence author
International Journal of Marine Science, 2016, Vol. 6, No. 38   doi: 10.5376/ijms.2016.06.0038
Received: 24 Aug., 2016    Accepted: 12 Oct., 2016    Published: 12 Oct., 2016

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Gammal M.A.M.E., 2016, The Effect of Drainage Water in Water Quality of Tarut Bay, Arabian Gulf  Saudi Arabia, International Journal of Marine Science, 6(38): 1-12 (doi:10.5376/ijms.2016.06.0038)

Discharge of raw sewage wastes, agriculture drainage  and other waste discharges, pollute most of the environments and affect  marine water quality, survival and physiological activities of aquatic biota community. The quantity of drainage water discharge in Tarut Bay is 400,000 m³/day approximately from Qatif area and 370,000m³/day from Dammam, the sources were from the secondary and tertiary treatment; quality of this drainage water and their effects in environment  studied and presented in this investigation. Three groups studied; 1- Coastal  groups (before and after drainages group, 10 sites); 2- drainages groups (5drainages sites ) and 3- inside  gulf groups  (3 sites ). The analysis of physico-chemical characteristics of water and estimation of chlorophyll “a” is carried out monthly for four seasons; Winter, Summer, Spring, and Fall with respect to salinity, electric conductivity (EC), total dissolved salts (TDS), Nitrogen nutrients; Ammonia (NH₃), nitrite (NO₂₎ and nitrates, (NO₃₎, silicate (SiO₄), and  phosphorous nutrients; active phosphorous (PO₄) and total phosphorous (TP) , chlorides, sulfide (H₂S), free carbon dioxide (CO₂ ), Total Alkalinity (TA), calcium, (Ca), Magnesium (Mg), potassium (K), sodium (Na) , coliform bacteria and Fecal coliform bacteria,  and heavy metals such as; Hg, As, Zn, Ni, Fe, Cr, Cd , Cu and Pb . Results were indicated that the drainage groups shows more significant differences (p> 0.05)   than the coastal and inside groups for NH₃, No₂, No₃, TDN, PO₄ ,TP, TA, coliform bacteria, and less significant differences (p> 0.05) for pH, salinity, EC, TDS, Ca, Mg, K, Na. On the other hand the inside groups recorded more significant differences (p> 0.05) than Coastal and drainage groups for Zn and Cr. The Cd, Pb, and Cu are not in detectable level for all samples in all the three groups studied,  but the other parameters have no significant differences (p> 0.05)  between the three groups. Generally,  the drainage water discharge in Tarut Bay showed a less significant deviation from the International standards and Saudi standard values in most parameters values of  marine water quality and are well below the accepted levels and no harmful level in micro flora and the fauna of Arabian gulf in the study area.

Water quality; Drainage water; Heavy metals; Arabian Gulf; Saudi Arabia