EVALUATION OF WATER QUALITY BY USING CORRELATION COEFFICIENT AND WATER QUALITY INDEX IN SHARURAH GOVERNORATE, SAUDI ARABIA

Abstract

This study is the first to be conducted in Sharurah governorate, Saudi Arabia, on groundwater. In this study, correlation analysis and water quality index WQI were used to analyze thirty data points of groundwater in some fields (15wells) in Sharurah city and its outskirts. The correlation analysis utilized the correlation coefficient to study the relationship between different physicochemical parameters such as Hydrogen ion concentration (pH), electrical conductivity (EC), turbidity (Turb), total dissolved solids (TDS), total hardness (TH), chloride (Cl-), sulfate (SO\(_4^{2-}\)), fluoride (F-), total iron (Fe) nitrite (NO\(_2^-\)) and nitrate (NO\(_3^-\)), of groundwater at studied wells for Sharurah city. On the other hand, water quality index provides a useful tool for monitoring of water quality, it uses the values of different water parameters in a mathematical equation to produce a value that rates water quality, and determines the suitability of water for drinking. The study came out with the results that there are several statistically significant correlations between water parameters. Whereas water quality index WQI result reflects that 80% of the samples are of excellent and good quality.