5.

Conclusions and Recommendation

5.1 Conclusions
The Euphrates River represents one of the main sources of water with the Euphrates
River in Iraq. The recent water crisis in the region has prompted the necessity of
assessing the quality of the river's water during the wet and dry season. Water samples
from 15 stations along the Euphrates River taken in 2015 and 2016 to test eleven physical
and chemical parameters in the selected stations along the Euphrates River. These
parameters are: Ca, Mg, Na, K, Cl, SO4, HCO3, TH, TDS, NO3, and EC.
The measured values of all tested parameters in the years of 2015 and 2016 along the
Euphrates River were increased gradually from the station (1) in Qaim (Anbar province)
to the station (15) in Qurnah (Al-Basra province), the in clearly increased showed from
station (11) to the station (15) for all selected parameters in these stations. The
concentration of HCO3 was decreased gradually from station (1) to the station (10) and
then increased from station (11) to the station (15).
The results showed that the measured concentration`s values of Ca, Mg, Na, K, Cl, SO 4,
EC, TDS and HCO3, were higher than the values in 2016 at all selected stations along the
Euphrates River, while the concentrations values of TH and NO 3 in 2015 were higher
than the resulted values in 2016.
The weighted arithmetic method was applied to compute the water quality index (WQI)
for each selected station along the whole length of the Euphrates River within the Iraqi
borders during in 2015 and 2016 using a series of equations mentioned before. The
results showed that the water quality index was increased progressively for the selected
stations along the Euphrates River from the upstream of the river (Qaim) toward the
downstream (Qurnah).
The WQI from the station (1) until the station (10) were calculated and they were given
the rating of good water quality in both years within the category of (0 – 100) based on
the WQI value.
In the years of 2015 and 2016,), the WQI values for the stations (11 – 15) were higher
than 100 within the category of (100 – 200) and the water quality in these stations was
classified as poor water quality. The clear degradation was related to several pollutants
originating in human activities and natural phenomena factors occurring along the
pathway of the river. Moreover, the computed WQI values indicated that the water
quality of the river at these stations invalid to use before treating the parameters
concentrations (especially) with had values more than allowable limits.
In this study, the IDW method of the spatial analyst extension in the ArcGIS 10.5 used
for mapping the water quality parameters within the catchment area. This will assist in
identifying the sampling locations or areas along the river with high impairment level
which will in turn aid in the enforcement of standards and pollution control activities.

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5.2 Recommendation
1. Evaluation of the Water Quality Index along the Tigris River by measuring the same
or more samples.
2. Evaluation of the Water Quality Index along the Euphrates river by measuring more
samples including the pH and turbidity beside the measured samples in the current
study.
3. Producing the interpolation maps in the GIS for concentrations of parameters along
the Euphrates River.

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