CCME WQI. 

Dear Anila Ajayan

Thanks a lot, if you could a brief explanation of this index or introduce it along with advantages.

regards 

Dear Zabihollah,

1. Index of the quality of drinking water (DWQI)

    - all parameters regardless WHO designation.

2. National quality index of spring water (SWQI):

    - microbial and health criteria only;

    - Arsenic, boron, cadmium, chromium, copper, fluoride, lead, manganese, mercury, nitrate, nitrite and fecal coliforms.

3. Index acceptability of the quality of water (AWQI):

    - The criteria for acceptability only;

    - Ammonia, chloride, iron, pH, sodium, sulfate, zinc.

http://www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/pdf/global_drinking_water_quality_index.pdf 

http://www.unep.org/gemswater/Default.aspx?tabid=101094

With my best regards

Prof. Bachir ACHOUR

Hello Dear Zabihollah Yousefi , 

Please find the attached. 

Greetings!!

Anila Ajayan 

Dear Anila Ajayan and Bachir Achour

Thanks a lot, for your reply and tries to participation in this topic.

Yours

Dear Yousefi

I think the attached article can help you

They developed a software for WQI calculation

Dear All,

The WHO guidelines for the criteria for our national drinking water guidelines. 

Kind Regards,

Clint

Dear Ahmed Gad and Clinton Rissmann

Thanks a lot for your participation and helps.

yours

I feel microbial quality which is determined by fecal coliform and total coliform tests is very important. Hence I feel WQI developed by UN for GEMS is a better indicator of water quality.

It has to be seen from a practical perspective, in particular for developing countries. In this sense the latest response, which focuses in the microbial content is one of the quickest way to assess water for drinking purposes.

Just so we are clear, it is difficult to just look at water and tell much.  It should be tested, or if not at least filtered properly and boiled.  Also, get to know something about the area, industries, land uses, pollution sources.  Generally speaking, in streams or rivers, a diverse population of aquatic insects, intolerant of pollution, like stoneflies, mayflies, and caddie flies (each species is related to pollution tolerance) is going to be a good indicator.  By informed individuals, they should be able to identify them.  I used to drink directly from small mountain streams and springs in Oregon, but have since learned that was not too smart. Filtering and boiling probably removes or kills fecal and Chryptosporidium contaminants, but there are quite a few other contaminants, some natural, some related to man, land use, etc.  I don't know if there is any single perfect indicator to rely on.  

The indicators of aquatic insect is that it might be suitable when treated for drinking.  Obviously, muddy or tannic waters are less likely to be suitable, but may still be treatable.  Some of the healthiest drinking waters I have read about is apparently the milky glacier melt waters where individuals live real long lives.  Maybe the clean air and native foods helps too.  And it is different to drink water once or twice, and drink it for years, and also, if you are adult or baby, you body has different tolerances.  We have drinking water standards that were developed over time and many studies.  Rely on them.

It is not an easy task to conclude that a particular index is better than others as none is  without a defect, though modified CCME makes alot of sense to me. The most important thing is selection of right parameter

Dear Mr. Zabihollah,

As a lot of our colleagues already said - there are many water-quality indices (starting from the year 1965 with Horton's WQI) and everybody could have different "favorites" among them...

I'd suggest you to put your attention to the "universal water quality index" (UWQI) proposed by Mrs. Hülya Boyacioğlu in an article "Development of a water quality index based on a European classification scheme" in Water SA ,Vol. 33 No. 1,  2007, pp. 101-106. UWQI took into consideration the water-quality standards set by the Council of European Communities, the Turkish water pollution control regulations and other scientific information to select 12 water-quality parameters as the most representative for drinking water quality (UWQI amounts from 0 to 100). This index is my "favorite" among drinking water quality indices!

Also, there is a great book about this topic: Tasneem Abbasi, S.A. Abbasi, Water Quality Indices, Elsevier, 2012.

Kind regards,

Davor Ljubas

Attaching a cc from public arena on drinking water quality issues by various land uses and biological influences.  Maybe you might find useful.  The index that you select may vary for the circumstances.  So for your circumstance, you are the most knowledgeable to select, one, two or more for your intent and if you want to compare results from your area with results of other areas that use different indices.  There are procedures to develop biological indices of water quality, some use fish, macrointertebrates, fecal coliform, etc.  Some prefer chemical indices.  Even with an index, depending on if lives or other critical resources are involved with its use, you may want to assess risks, want to validate that the index is representative of what you are seeking, such as public health for drinking or maybe acceptable enough to be used as wastewater irrigation for forests, grasslands, crops or discharged into rivers without undue impact.  I can imagine you may have a great many things to consider.  Hopefully you will find an index or indices that are relatively easy and inexpensive to collect, but are truly reliable and representative of the intent you want to provide.

Dear participants to this question discussion

Thanks a lot for your good replies and participation

All of your answers was useful.

Yours

We have developed a WQI for drnking water. This index uses IS 10500: 2012 drnking water quality standards as the basis. The WQI for general parameters is further qualified by (minimum operator subindices for toxic substances, radioactive substances and for biological water quality.

We have developed a WQI for drnking water. This index uses IS 10500: 2012 drnking water quality standards as the basis. The WQI for general parameters is further qualified by (minimum operator subindices for toxic substances, radioactive substances and for biological water quality.

I think this will help you to evaluate the water quality at its best without any bias in a easy way.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331009233_Development_of_new_integrated_water_quality_index_IWQI_model_to_evaluate_the_drinking_suitability_of_water

I used weighted arithmetic index method (WAWQIM) to do my study.

The Trophic Index for Turkey might be applicable for Turkey only

Dear Dr Zabihollah Yousefi . A water quality index (WQI) provides a single number (like a grade) that expresses overall water quality at a certain location and time based on several water quality parameters. The objective of an index is to turn complex water quality data into information that is understandable and useable by the public. So it is a scale from 0 to 100. The higher the value the better the quality of water. The WQI values ranges between 0 which represents a worst water quality and 100, the best water quality. See the RG link: Chapter Application of Water Quality Index for the Assessment of Wat...

The best quality