Assessment of water quality in Blinaja River Basin (Kosovo) using the Canadian Water Quality Index (WQI)

Kosovo has limited natural water resources which should be well managed. This is recently realised through quantitative and qualitative monitoring of both surface and groundwater and by characterizing their quality according to their destination. In this paper, the Water Quality Index (WQI) developed by the Canadian Council of Environment Ministers (CCME WQI) was applied to evaluate the groundwater quality of the River Blinaja Basin, Kosovo. For calculating the WQI, sixteen (T, Turbidity (TUR), DO, CODMn, BOD5, pH, TDS, TH, Na+, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, K⁺, HCO3⁻, Cl⁻, SO4 ²⁻ and NO3⁻) physic-chemical parameters were analysed. The WQI in Blinaja Basin groundwater ranges from 66.52 to 100.00 ranking these waters from fair to excellent classes. Bicarbonate, dissolved oxygen, Ca2+, Mg2+ and total hardness have higher values in the north-eastern part of the basin affecting the water quality and having the most influence on the WQI. Based on the results obtained and compared with the WHO standard, it was found that groundwater of River Blinaja Basin is mainly within the allowed limit values to be used for drinking water. The application of the Brown WQI method gave similar results, classifying the groundwater from good to excellent. Both WQI methods showed that these waters are of better quality because the relatively protected groundwater is hosted by a weakly affected peripheral area by human activities.