Assessment of Some Bacteriological and Ecological Characteristics in ( Bany-Hassan) river and one of its branches /Karbala-Iraq

Abstract

Three stations has been selected, tow of them are located in Bany-Hassan river in Karbala city ,the rest located in one of its branches : (Abo Sefen), to study some physical, chemical and bacteriological characters Monthly for a full year starting from January 2007 until December 2007. The results showed that water temperature which was between (10-34)C affected by surrounding air temperature. The water of area study was moderately alkaline with pH ranging between (7.3-8.3). Turbidity and the electrical conductivity of Abo Sefen stream water was higher than that of Bany-Hassan river, salinity values were recorded between (0.795-0.855)‰ and (0.736-0.790)‰ Respectively. The total hardness ranged between (210-820) mg CaCO3/L, which was classified as very hard water. It was showed that cations and anions in Abo Sefen sream were founded in higher concentrations . in this study It was found that SO4-2(422-200) mg/L was dominate among Cl-1 (104-172) mg/L and Ca+2(126-160) mg/L values which was more than Mg+2 (10.2-27) mg/L. Dissolved oxygen value ranged between (4.29-9.8) mg/L, while no case of over saturation with oxygen was recorded in this study. Unlike the River Bany Hassan the water in the Abo Sefen stream considered as a bad source of raw water according to BOD standards. The nutrients showed clear fluctuation in their concentrations. Nitrate values were (120-940) μg/L and nitrite values were (0.5-91) μg/L, while reactive phosphate values were (15-45.6) μg/L. The water in this study was not matching to the Iraqi and the international standards for drinking water and some other indicators according to the levels of the total number of bacteria and coliform bacteria and fecal coliform bacteria, recorded between (55-2438) cell /ml and (42-1522) cell/100ml and (25-788) cell/100ml respectively for all mentioned bacterial groups .