Investigation of water quality in wet and dry seasons under climate change

Abstract

Providing fresh water suitable for drinking and farming and living organisms in the ecosystem is essential. To evaluate water quality, qualitative indicators are often employed for managing water resources and water quality protection and pollution abatement. This study evaluated the quality of Borkhar basin water resources using three different water quality indices, including National Institutes of Health Water Quality Index (NIHWQI) having nine parameters, the Oregon Water Quality Index (OWQI) having eight parameters, and the Canadian Water Quality Indices (CWQI) with 22 main parameters. Using data for a period of 30 years, NIHWQI, OWQI and CWQI were used. To analyze water quality of the entire basin for current and future time. Results showed that water quality of the basin was in a very moderate range according to NSFWQI, and was in a very bad range accordingly to OWQI. Water quality forecasts showed that future water quality would be bad, based on OWQI and moderate based on NSFWQI, whereas based on CWQI, it will be good for drinking, and bad for aquatic animals, recreation, irrigation, and livestock use.