Water quality indices for Euphrates River.

Abstract

Saod WM, Rashid FA, Turki AM, Mansoor Al-Taee MJ., Water quality indices for Euphrates River, Onl J Vet Res., 23 (5):407-413, 2019. Authors describe bacteria, physical and chemical properties, conductance, suspended and dissolved solids, pH, hardness, trace and heavy metals for water quality index (WQI) from 5 samples of different locations of the Euphrates River, Ramadi, Iraq, Spring 2018. We found aerobic bacteria reached 114*10-8 cell/ml with Enterobacter amnigenu, Klebsiella aerogenes, Pseudomonas spp, Escherichia coli, Proteus sp, Shigella spp and Streptococcus faecalis predominating. Water pH varied 7.6-7.8 with 742±2mg/L dissolved solids and hardness of 1333.2±38 mg\L exceeding limits of 500 and 1000 mg\L. Sodium levels were 145.1 ± 0.94 and potassium 11.08 ± 1.06mg/L (within limit). Calcium (105±7 mg/L), magnesium (56.4±6.4 mg\L) and sulphate (265.6±1.47 mg/L) exceeded permitted levels whereas and nitrate ions were below limit (2.2± 0.8mg/L). Conductance was 1245.2±91 µs\cm exceeding limit of 750 µs\cm and total suspended solids 215±37.5 mg\L, well above limit of 50 mg\L. There were no significant correlations between water quality and conductivity, hardness, calcium but there was with coliform count (P 0.001) and magnesium levels (P < 0.05). We find that water samples from The Euphrates River, Ramadi, Iraq, were of poor quality, and should not be ingested by animals or humans