The Use of Water Quality Index Technique to Assess Ground Water for Drinking in West Karbala City, South west of Iraq

Water quality index (WQI) is a mathematical tool used to transform large quantities of water Quality data into single number which represents water quality level. This research is accomplished to evaluate the quality of groundwater in Quaternary aquifer /Karbala city- for the purpose of drinking by using Water Quality Index (WQI). Groundwater samples were collected in September, 2016from 16 wells. Various physicochemical parameters pH, total dissolved solids, potassium, bicarbonate, Sulphate, total hardness, sodium, calcium, magnesium, and chloride ions have been calculated in all the water samples. In most of the parameters the concentration observed were found to be above the permissible limits of the Iraqi standard for Drinking Purpose. The results showed that WQI values for the groundwater of the study area ranged from 260-379, which mean water was found to be severely contaminated and unsuitable for drinking purpose at all sites of the wells. Also this research concluded that further improvement is required to treat the water of Dibdiba aquifer wells for using as drinking purpose.