Developing Water Quality Index to Assess the Quality of the Drinking Water

Abstract

In the present study, an attempt has been to develop a new water quality index (WQI) method that depends on the Iraqi specifications for drinking water (IQS 417, 2009)  to assess the validity of the Euphrates River for drinking by classifying the quality of the river water at different stations along its entire reach inside the Iraqi lands. The proposed classifications by this method are: Excellent, Good, Acceptable, Poor, and Very poor. Eight water quality parameters have been selected to represent the quality of the river water these are: Ion Hydrogen Concentration (pH), Calcium (Ca), Magnesium (Mg), Sodium (Na), Chloride (Cl), Sulphate (SO_4), Nitrate (NO_3), and Total Dissolved Solids (TDS). The variation of the water quality parameters along the river have been represented by graphs using Excel.2013 software. The results revealed that the quality of the Euphrates River ranges from “Good” to “Poor”, it enters the Iraqi borders with “Good” water quality and gradually its quality begins to decrease after it receives pollution from many sources such as domestic sewage and different industrial effluents until its quality becomes “Poor” according to the proposed classification. Finally the proposed WQI can be used as a tool to assess the quality of the river with both place and time.