Physico-Chemical Assessment of Euphrates Riverbetween Heet and Ramadi Cities, Iraq

Abstract

The Water Quality Index (WQI) of Euphrates river between Heet and Ramadi cities was carried out using various water quality parameter from November 2008 to June 2009 . Twelve water quality parameters namely Ph , Dissolved Oxygen (DO) , Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) , Turbidity , Total Dissolved Salts (TDS) , Total Suspended Solids (TSS) , Bicarbonate (HCO3 Phosphate (PO4 , Total Nitrogen (TN) , Chloride Cl-) and Fecal Coliform (FC) were considered to , Sulfate SO4 , compute Water Quality Index (WQI) based on the Canadian council of Ministers of the Environment Water Quality Index methodology (CCME WQI) . We found that the water quality of Euphrates river in the study area is mostly rated as marginal CCME WQI is 45.17 for over all drinking aquatic uses in the study period . Generally , the water quality was marginal at the upstream and poor at the downstream throughout the study period . The deterioration of water quality in Euphrates river can be attributed to natural and anthropogenic sources .