Valuation of Drinking Water Human Health Risk Using Nitrate Pollution Index (NPI): A Case Study for The Ground Water of Al-Hamdaniya District. Iraq

Abstract

This current study aims to assess the health risks of water wells scattered in Hamdaniya district, southeast of the city of Mosul, with nitrate ions that have a serious effects on human health at high levels such as blue child syndrome and cancerous diseases: 20 wells have been identified to collect sixty water samples during the dry season to estimate Nitrate ion levels as well as the calculation of the nitrate contamination index (NPI).The results indicated that the concentration of nitrate ions in the studied water samples ranged between (0.41 to 16.4) mg.l-1 and a rate ranging between (1.23 to (9.66) mg.l-1, this relatively high levels of nitrate in most well water is due to pollution resulting from the use of agricultural fertilizers and sewage water etc., fortunately, there are no health risks to humans when using well water for drinking because the NPI values fluctuated between (-0.98 to -0.22), and thus the quality of the water wells understudy is classified as non-polluted water category.