A recent article by Abadi et al. (2025) summarises existing concepts for assessing the suitability of surface water and groundwater for irrigation purposes. Unlike many other pollution data sets, the data underlying this study are widely available and of reliable quality. The importance of such robust key data is highlighted, for example, by Osta et al. (2022), who found that almost 50% of wells in a province in Saudi Arabia have water quality that is limited or unsuitable for irrigation, mainly due to saltwater intrusion.
Another stress factor in relation to salinisation is leaching from mining waste dumps. This is becoming an increasing problem due to the large demand for rare earths. When compared to other metals, their concentrations in bedrock is much lower, causing big amounts of tailings. In many developing countries those tailings are left unprotected against leaching. The saline leachates from mining waste impact ground- and surface waters on long-term and - unlike emissions from urban and other industrial processes - are difficult or even impossible to remedy. The impacts on livelihoods in the affected river basins can become drastic, in particular when water resources become unsuitable for irrigation.
Widely available and reliable data schemes, such as those presented by Abadi et al. 2025, are an important complement to exploratory analysis tools such as the EMS tool developed by the JRC (Crestaz et al., 2023).
References:
Abadi, H. T., Alemayehu, T., & Berhe, B. A. (2025). Assessing the suitability of water for irrigation purposes using irrigation water quality indices in the Irob catchment, Tigray, Northern Ethiopia. Water Quality Research Journal, 60(1), 177–195. https://doi.org/10.2166/wqrj.2024.055
Crestaz, E., Seliger, R., Cattaneo, L., Umlauf, G., Iervolino, A., Pastori, M., … Carmona Moreno, C. (2023). Environmental monitoring system: An open source information system with a case study over the transboundary Senegal River Basin. Ispra. https://aquaknow.jrc.ec.europa.eu/document/ems-tool
Osta, M. El, Masoud, M., Alqarawy, A., Elsayed, S., & Gad, M. (2022). Groundwater suitability for drinking and irrigation using water quality indices and multivariate modeling in Makkah Al-Mukarramah Province, Saudi Arabia. Water (Switzerland), 14(3). https://doi.org/10.3390/w14030483