Ground Water Quality Assessment Using the Water Quality Index, Iraq

Water Quality Index (WQI) has been applying in the present study to assess suitability of groundwater quality for drinking purposes in Amara city, southern Iraq. This was carried out by subjecting twelve groundwater samples, collected from different sites to comprehensive physic-chemical analysis. Ten parameters have been considered for calculating the WQI such as; pH, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids, sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, chloride, sulphate and nitrate. The WQI values shows that 16.66% of water samples falls in good water categories and the others (83.66%) ranged from poor water to unsuitable for drinking purposes under normal conditions and further action for salinity control is required. The high value of WQI at this study has been found to be mainly due to the higher values of EC, TDS, SO4-2, Ca+2, Mg+2 and Cl- where it was found that there is a very high correlation coefficient between them.