WATER QUALITY OF SHATT AL-ARAB RIVER IN BASRAH IRAQ: HEAVY AND TRACE METAL CONCENTRATIOND.K.K. AL-KHUZAIE, W.F. HASSAN, R.A. IMRAN AND Z.A. ABDUL-NABI ABSTRACTAbstract Assessing water quality is an important factor in preserving ecosystems. There are many physical and chemical properties of water which can be taken into consideration in order to assess water quality. In order to classify the quality of water in the Shatt Al-Arab River eight locations were selected along it in Basra city of Iraq during 2016. Six heavy and trace metals:- Cadmium (Cd), Copper (Cu), Iron (Fe), Manganese (Mn), Lead (Pb), and Zinc (Zn) were analyzed using Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy. The result shows that the observed values of Cd, Cu, Fe, Mn, Pb and Zn was (0.011-0.025), (0.102-0.285), (0.271-0.603) (0.231-0.354) (0.137-0.217) (0.197-0.314) mg/L respectively. Cd and Pb are well above the recommended value for all rivers maintaining systems and general waters from pollution, while Cd, Cu and Pb exhibit higher values than the guidelines values for protection of aquatic life. In addition to pollution from farms and factories, Metals increase in the river water may be due to runoff or which comes down with rain to the ground from the air, which is instrumental in raising the concentration of lead in water. also the low water river discharge can be a main reason that it could not cleanup itself. |