Physical and chemical properties of rainwater and its suitability for drinking and irrigating in Erbil City

Abstract EN

The assessments of the air pollution for Erbil city were carried out by collecting samples of rain from different regions and test them in a lab to find out there pollutant effect on human health and investigate their suitability for domestic use.

The acidity of the rain was tested as well; the concentration of each of TDS, NO3, CL, Ca, and turbidity were measured for many stations in Erbil city.

The current study conducted the quality of rain water for drinking and irrigation purposes by using Water quality index (WQI) and Irrigation water quality index (IWQI).

Both indexes are used to make our data easier and understandable by the public.

The most important variables such as turbidity, pH, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids, alkalinity, total hardness, calcium, chloride and nitrate were taken for calculation of WQI and IWQI for a 1st and 22th November- 2014 to 1st and 20th February- 2015.

Four sites were chosen within Erbil city (Zhian Q, Qaratapa Q, Karizan and Mamostian Q) with three replications for each sample.

The higher index value, WQI, for rain water samples of 2014 was 49.852 while the lowest value was 57.362 in Qaratapa Q and Zhian Q respectively, which means excellent and good for drinking purposes respectively.