ASSESSMENT OF THE SURFACE WATER QUALITY OF THE DRINI I BARDHE BASIN USING THE WATER QUALITY INDEX (WQI) METHOD

The water quality index (WQI) method (Oram et al., 1970) was used to assess the quality of surface waters in Drini i Bardhe basin. The purpose of this paper was to analyze and present the results for the quality of surface waters in the river basin Drini i Bardhe based on the data for the period (2005-2011, KHMI 2012). The annual average values of nine physic-chemical parameters for each hydrometric station were taken into consideration for the calculation of the WQI. From the obtained results it is observed that the quality of surface waters in the Drini i Bardhe watershed range from 50 to 70. According to the WQI categorization the water quality of the Drini i Bardhe basin belongs to the middle class.