Assessment of groundwater quality using Water Quality Index in Chaldoran area, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran

Background and Aim: The human body is primarily water and healthy drinking water is vital to human life. The continuous growth and development of population need more fresh water for drinking, irrigation, and domestic in cities such as Chaldoran. The evaluation of groundwater quality is an essential study to ensure its suitability for different purposes. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 98 groundwater samples were taken from different areas of Chalderan to assess the groundwater quality for drinking and irrigation purposes. Eleven water parameters were analyzed at each groundwater sample (Na+, K +, Ca2+, Mg2+, HCO3−, SO42−, Fe2+, Mn2+, Cl −, EC, and pH) to exploit them in water quality evaluation. A classical statistic was applied for the raw data to examine the distribution of physicochemical parameters in the investigated area. The relationship between groundwater parameters were tested using the correlation coefficient where a strong relationship was found between several water parameters such as Ca2+ and Cl−. Water quality index (WQI) is a mathematical model used to transform many water parameters into a single indicator value which represents the water quality level. The statistical analysis such as one-way ANOVA test, was done by SPSS (Version 24.0.). Results: Results of WQI showed that 16% of groundwater samples are excellent, 79% are good for drinking, and 7% are very poor water while only 1% of samples are unsuitable for drinking. Conclusion: To test the suitability of groundwater for irrigation, three indices are used; they are sodium adsorption ration (SAR), sodium percentage (Na%), and permeability index (PI). For irrigation suitability, the study proved that most sampling sites are suitable while less than 3% are unsuitable for irrigation.

Keywords:

Groundwater quality , WQI , SAR , PI , Chaldoran