Ground water quality assessment of Iranshahr for use in urban areas

Abstract

With increasing population and decreasing per capita of stored water resources as well as increasing physico-chemical pollutions, the water crisis has become one of the greatest problems of the world. With regard to the fact that all the structural shapes and biochemical activities of cells depend on physico-chemical characteristics of water, pollution hazards might cause numerous diseases, especially among children, the elderly, and the ones whose immune system is weak; therefore great economic costs would have been imposed on society. For this reason, it is especially important that water consumed by population is surely safe. The use of an index of the water quality in the measurement of the physico-chemical features of water has been an important method in determining water quality, given the lower cost and being ensured of the results obtained. Water quality index is a method which is able to determine water quality based on raw laboratory data. To evaluate the quality of groundwater resources of Iranshahr plain in this project, after the sampling, eight pH physico-chemical parameters including total dissolved solids, total hardness, total alkalinity, Calcium, Magnesium, Chlorine and electrical conductivity were calculated using standard methods. Water quality index of these areas was calculated in accordance with World Health Organization standards. The results of the analysis show that the water wells of Sarkahuran zone have the best quality and Rikapout and Mohammad Abad wells have highly unsuitable quality and are not drinkable at all.