Quality of stormwater runoff in the State of Kuwait, Al‐Asema governorate

Abstract

The purpose of this preliminary study was to evaluate the quality of stormwater runoff, and determine the impact of land use on the level of runoff contamination. To accomplish this, 36 samples were collected from 6 sampling locations in the ‘Al‐Asema’ governorate – the capital of the state of Kuwait – over six rain events. Samples were analysed for total suspended solids, total dissolved solids, volatile suspended solids, chemical oxygen demand, biochemical oxygen demand, pH, total coliform, and oil and grease. The results indicated that land use had a significant influence on the major water quality constituents. Stormwater runoff was highly polluted exceeding the accepted limit for TSS, BOD, and total coliform.

Keywords:

• Stormwater
• Runoff quality
• Chemical analysis
• Kuwait

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by Kuwait University, Research Grant No. [EV 03/07]. The authors would like to acknowledge co‐operation from Mr Khaled Al‐Shuaibi, Mr Mohamed Karam and Mr Hasan Dashti from the Department of Meteorology at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation in regard to the precipitation data. The authors are grateful to Eng. Khaled Alazmi for his help with the statistical analysis.

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