Affiliations: School of Agriculture, Soil and Water Science
Department, University of Sulaimani, Kurdistan, Iraq School of Marine Science
and Engineering, University of Plymouth, Plymouth PL4 8AA, UK | College of Science, University of Salahaddin, Irbil-Kurdistan, Iraq
Abstract: A study of water pollution was conducted at Halabja-Sulaimani.
Water samples were collected from five different locations in a radial manner
around and within Halabja town. Water sources included artesian wells, drilled
wells and Kahreezes. Before the chlorination and disinfection process, water
samples were collected and then chemical and bacteriological analyses were
conducted. The field works commenced according to a regular schedule twice per
month, starting in June and ending in November 2007. The chemical evaluation of
the well waters in the present study based on standards given for drinking
water by the World Health Organization guidelines, can be assessed as
good-quality; ranging from moderately hard to hard. Saturated by oxygen and
healthy with regard to biological oxygen demand. The maximum and minimum of
reactive phosphorus, nitrate, nitrite and chloride were 0.05–4.29 mg at P-PO_4
l^{-1}, 0.83–8.40 N-NO_3 l^{-1} and 1.42–25.16 mgl^{-1},
respectively. All water samples during the investigation period revealed pollution by nickel, lead, molybedinum
and chromium. In all investigated sites, cations were dominated by calcium
followed by magnesium, sodium and potassium in order of decreasing concentrations.
