التقييم النوعي لمياه الشرب المعبأة في العراق-منطقة الفرات الأوسط

الملخص EN

This paper is aimed to evaluate the quality of the bottled drinking water produced in middle Euphrates area (Babylon, Karbala and Najaf).

Two companies for producing this water were selected for each city.

However this selection concern on the largest distribution of it.

Samples were collected in the range of two consecutive.

The first was at the last quarter of the year 2011, while the second sample was for the first quarter of the year 2012.

Tests were conducted in the laboratories of Najaf environmental directories.

The biological tests consist Fecal coliform and E-Coli bacteria while the physical and chemical tests consist pH value, total dissolved solids TDS, Na, Ca, Mg, Cl, SO4, and NO3.

Results showed that the tested water conformed to the Iraqi specifications (microbiological limits).

On the other hand, physical and chemical tests were also conforming to Iraqi specifications and International Bottled Water Association (IBWA), except the pH value, where 36 % of the tested samples were not satisfied for both of the above specifications.

There were differences in the quality of the tested water for the same factory, in different ranges for the parameters tested within 31 % in general.

There were inconsistence between the factory specifications and the real tested specifications, in different ranges for the parameters tested within 52 % in general.