Adverse Impact of Al-Khoser River upon Tigris River at Outfall Area

Abstract

The present study included assessing current pollution of Al-Khoser by heavy metals and bacteria, which is one of the largest tributaries of the Tigris river in the left bank within Mosul city. The samples were collected from five estuary locations of the khosar river and actually two duplicate samples from each location and through two seasons had been taken, the first in April (spring) and the second in August (summer) 2006. The first collected samples used in the analyses of heavy metals included (Zn), (Cd), (Cu), (Co), and (Pb). While the second collection were used in the calculation of the total bacterial count (TBC) and measure the concentrations of nutrients nitrate and phosphate. The analyses of heavy metals showed higher values relative with in comparison with Tigris River. Both cadmium and copper were found over the limits for drinking water. This is resulting in a significant risk to living organisms in general. The analysis of bacterial count reflects the contamination of Al- Khosar river water. The interpretation of the results revealed an affection of Tigris river water by Al-Khosar river water and this cause a risk limits within 300 meters down stream its estuary.