861 ISSN 0097-8078, Water Resources, 2019, Vol. 46, No. 6, pp. 861–870. © Pleiades Publishing, Ltd., 2019. Possibility of the Application of Danube, Sava and Morava River Area Shallow Aquifer Groundwater (Serbia) in the Irrigation Purposes Sanja Mrazovac Kurilić a, *, Novica Staletović a, **, Khalil Salem Abulsba a, ***, and Khaled Salem Dagali a, **** a Faculty of Ecology and Environmental Protection, University “Union-Nikola Tesla,” Belgrade, 11000 Serbia *e-mail: mrazovac@gmail.com **e-mail: nomstale@mts.rs ***e-mail: environmentalprotect12345@gmail.com ****e-mail: dagali81@yahoo.com Received September 26, 2018; revised November 10, 2018; accepted November 10, 2018 Abstract—This paper presents the results of the groundwater quality assessment, on the Serbian Danube, Sava and Morava River water area, for irrigation purposes. The analysis was done at 54 locations on the Danube, Sava and Morava River water area (Republic of Serbia). The approach to assess the groundwater quality indi- cators is based on the sustainable water exploitation and the protection of health and environment. This paper presents an overview of the chemical parameters of water samples from the groundwater sources of the Dan- ube, Sava and Morava River water area, i.e. its shallow aquifer. Indicators on the basis of which the assessment of the possibility of water application for irrigation purposes was done are: electroconductivity, concentration of sodium ions, sodium absorption ratio, residual sodium carbonate, magnesium hazard and permeability index. Based on the presented indicators, the quality of the shallow aquifer groundwater on the Danube, Sava and Morava River water area for the irrigation purposes can be mostly assessed as satisfactory. Keywords: irrigation, shallow aquifer groundwater, Danube, Sava, Morava, Serbia DOI: 10.1134/S0097807819060162 INTRODUCTION In the northern part of Serbia, the use of ground- water is the only way of water supply. Groundwater is used, except for the drinking purposes, for irrigation purposes. In other part of Serbia groundwater is rarely used for the drinking purposes, but very often for irri- gation purposes. The quality of water that lies below surface of the Earth depends on the physical and chemical charac- teristics of the surrounding walls (rocks) in the observed aquifer [6]. The interaction between the water and surrounding rocks is a process that continu- ously lasts for a very long period of time. Chemical composition of groundwater is a crucial factor that determines the continued use of water, whether for human consumption, industrial purposes or irrigation in agriculture. Water used for agricultural irrigation is easily acces- sible and belongs to the shallow aquifer, which means that it is located at smaller depths, up to 20 m. Water quality for irrigation is determined by laboratory anal- ysis of water samples. The most important factors on the basis of which the possibility of water use in agri- culture for irrigation is determined are the following: sodium content; content of carbonates and bicarbon- ates; pH; salinity; trace elements; toxic anions; nutri- ents; free chlorine. The intersection of all the above parameter gives a clear picture of the quality of water for irrigation of agricultural land. The groundwater of the area being analyzed in this paper are widely used for the soil irrigation. The suit- ability of groundwater for irrigation purposes depends on their mineral (chemical) composition, i.e. minerals that are components of these water. Water for land irri- gation should be of extremely good quality for achiev- ing high productivity of crops in a certain area. Irriga- tion water contains soluble substances in certain amounts called salts. Salts can contain a certain amount of substances that come from the dissolution of the rock walls between which the groundwater is located. The electrical conductivity and the content of sodium in water play an extremely important role in the possibility of using groundwater for irrigation. High salt content in irrigation water leads to an increase of osmotic pressure in the soil [15], which complicates the root of the plant to extract water. The osmotic pressure is proportional to the salt content of the water or the danger of salinity. Different salts pres- ent in irrigation water do not directly affect the growth WATER RESOURCES AND THE REGIME OF WATER BODIES