The water quality index (WQI) is applying for the integrating the water quality variables into a single number to indicate the overall quality of water. Rivers is one of the essential water resources, the protecting and preserving for the quality of this resource is important and imperative. An evaluation of water characteristics of the Shatt Al Arab River in Basrah city was performed in order to determine the quality of water for drinking usage. In this research, monitoring of variation in the characteristics of water was accomplished by collecting monthly water samples for three years. The water samples from the Shatt Al Arab River is analyzed for eight Physical and chemical parameters such as pH, total dissolved solids (TDS), electrical conductivity (EC), total hardness (TH), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), sulphate (SO4) and chloride (Cl) using standard methods. Utilizing the WQI discovered that the water quality of the studied river is ranked between very poor water type and not suitable water for drinking usage category. In the present investigation, the quality of water was revealed that the average of WQI value for the studied years was 318, 337.3 and 456.7, respectively.
To classification groundwater quality in the study area, three wells were drilled at a depth of 10m and selected two locations across Al Warrar Canal to represent their water quality. Water samples were collected from these wells and the Warrar Canal to examine water quality. Then results were compared against the World Health Organization (WHO) limits to study the Index of Water Quality (WQI). WQI was calculated according to the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME), and the quality of water was evaluated for domestic and irrigation uses. The samples were tested for electrical conductivity, pH, temperature, total dissolved solids, chloride, total hardness, nitrate, and alkalinity according to the standard methods. The results of laboratory analysis showed significant differences among the wells and Warrar Canal water quality in the measured parameters according to WHO limits. Due to many human activities like urbanization, agrarian overflow, drainage of untreated sewage, and industrialization, high values of trace elements and heavy metals were recorded in wells three. For agriculture purposes, the results show that the water in the three wells is very high salinity, where the Warrar Canal is high salinity, and Canal water causes saline and alkali damages. It was recommended that the WQI in three wells was poor water quality whereas, marginal water quality was pointed in AL Warrar Canal.