THE USE OF WATER QUALITY INDEX TO EVALUATE GROUNDWATER QUALITY IN WEST OF BASRAH WELLS

Abstract

Groundwater is an important natural resource necessary for drinking use for many societies all over the world, particularly in the rural areas. Due to water shortage problem in southern part of Iraq, the need arises to use the ground water especially in west of Basrah governorate, where it is considered as an important agricultural area in Iraq that supplies other areas of the country by main vegetable crops. Twenty-seven wells were chosen to be study cases for hydrochemical sampling and analyzing to determine the physical and chemical properties then compared with the requirements of World Health Organization (WHO 1993), and different water classifications, to estimate the groundwater suitability for different purposes. The collected samples in the field were analyzed for total dissolved solids (TDS), electrical conductivity (EC), pH, major cations like magnesium, calcium, sodium, potassium and anions like chloride, nitrate, carbonate, bicarbonate, and sulphate, in the laboratory. Water Quality Index (WQI) was used to assess the suitability of groundwater from the study area for human consumption. It has been calculated for each sample taken from wells and were compared to the standard guideline values as recommended by the (WHO) for drinking and public health in order to have an indication of the present quality of groundwater. According to the overall evaluation of the sites, almost all the parameters analyzed are above the desirable limits of WHO, therefore it was concluded that the quality of groundwater from the studied areas were not suitable for domestic purposes and far from drinking water standards.