Assessing the Severity Pollution of Surface Water in a sector of Diyala River by Using Water Quality Index at Al- Zafaraniya /Baghdad City, Iraq

This research aims to evaluate the contamination level of water samples for Diyala River in Al-Zafaraniya area within Baghdad Governorate by applying water quality index technique (WQIT).Twelve water samples were collected from different locations along the course of Diyala Riverat a distance of 100 m between one location and another. All water samples were analyzed for physical and chemical parameters, such as pH, total hardness (TH), total dissolved solids (TDS), calcium ion (Ca+2), magnesium ion (Mg+2),sodium ion (Na+), potassium ion (K+), chloride ion Cl-, sulfide ion SO4-2, and minor element nitrate ion NO3. The cause of water contamination was due to the increased salinity as the index of pollution which resulting from point sources by existing many facilities including Al- Zafaraniya power station, institutes, and a lot of residential compounds, factories and homes that dump their wastes directly into the river without any treatment. The results indicated that there is four water sample was poor water(S1, S2, S7 and S8), while the other eight water samples were classified as very poor water (S3, S4, S5, S6, S9, S10, S11, and S12).  Therefore; the surface water of the Diyala River was considered unsuitable for most of domestic uses according to the location of contaminant sources.