Quality Assessment of Various Bottled-Water and tap Water in Erbil City – Kurdistan Region of Iraq

Abstract

This study was conducted to demonstrate the suitability of bottled water used in Erbil city - Iraq and Tap water processed by the Directorate of Erbil’s water for human drinking and domestic consumption, about 37 brands of bottled water were collected including local and imported in different places of Erbil market during February 2015 to May 2015, the samples were examined by correlation analysis and water quality index )WQI(.Water quality index used to evaluate suitability of bottled water states for drinking purposes, samples were analyzed for chemical, physical and bacteriological properties such as PH, Turbidity, E.C.,T.D.S, T. Hardness and Alkalinity with measuring some elements (Ca+, Mg+, Cl-, SO4=, NO3-, Na+&K+ ) and coliform bacteria , all data compared with International Bottled Water Association ( IBWA, 2008 ) and World Health Organization for drinking water (WHO). Results showed that the WQI for these samples range from 24.233 to 101.122. Using the WQI all the bottled water and tap water samples were classified as excellent to poor water they are suitable for drinking and other domestic purpose.