Volume 25 , Issue 2 , December 2023 , Pages 263-281
Pshtiwan Gharib Ghafur 1 ; Rozhan Faraidun Abdulrahman 2
1 Department of Social Science, College of Basic Education, Sulaimani University, Kirkuk Road, Sulaimani, Kurdistan Region, Iraq
2 Department of Geography, College of Humanities, Sulaimani University, Kirkuk Road, Sulaimani, Kurdistan Region, Iraq
This study was designed to assess the spatiotemporal variability of bacterial pollution in
Darbandikhan Lake and its river resources in Iraq's Kurdistan Region. Seasonally, 25
samples (a total of 100 samples year-round) were collected and examined for aerobic
plate count (APC), total coliform (TC) and fecal coliform (FC) in all samples. Descriptive
statistics for physiochemical and microbiological variables and the Pearson correlation
coefficient (r) were performed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences
(SPSS) version 20 and OriginPro 2022b–Correlation Plot. GraphPad Prism v9 was used
to determine statistical significance (p < 0.05), one-way ANOVA was used, followed by
Tukey's multiple comparison tests. Results indicated positive correlations between
microbiological and Al, Cu, EC, Fe, K, Mg, Na, NO3, PO4, SO4, T.Alk, TDS, TH, Turb
and Zn in most of seasons at the < 0.01 and < 0.05 significance levels. Furthermore,
microbiological characteristics had a strongly positive correlation in all seasons. Water
resources are heavily contaminated with coliforms, especially in wet seasons. The
inhabitant’s activities, untreated sewage and waste water, disposed waste, and livestock
were the main contributors to this pollution, which in turn led to waterborne diseases,
particularly diarrhea. Considering the above issues, the government should treat the
water resources properly and take the required actions to solve this issue.