Groundwater Quality Evaluation in KalarTown-Sulaimani/NE -Iraq

Abstract

The Kalar town which is situated at the north east of Iraq was chosen for the investigations of the effect of rapid population increase on the quality of groundwater. The results showed that there are slight changes in ion concentrations due to dilution by rainfall. Pollutions with nitrate, phosphate and fluoride were detected in some water samples. The chemical relationships in expanded Durov, Chadha diagram, and Gibbs diagrams suggested that the groundwaters mainly belong to Ca-HCO3 type, and are controlled by chemical weathering of rock-forming minerals. Areal contour maps for electrical conductivity and ion distributions have shown that water samples from the town center are relatively rich in these values compared with other places in the town. This is attributed to the anthropogenic activity. A comparison of the groundwater quality in relation to drinking water quality standards proves that most of the water samples are suitable for drinking. US Salinity Laboratory’s diagrams, used for evaluating the water quality for irrigation and indicated that the majority of the groundwater samples are good for drinking, irrigation, and suitable for some industries like textile, chemical pulp but not paper industry.