An overview of water quality within the Colombo Municipal Council area; A retrospective report analysis

Abstract

Access to safe and quality drinking water is a fundamental requirement and a basic human right. Water quality is determined by its biological, physical, and chemical properties. Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) area consists of the largest population who utilize pipe-borne water supplied by the National Water Supply and Drainage Board (NWS&DB) Sri Lanka. The objective of the study was to assess the water quality of the drinking water under selected parameters within the Colombo Municipal Council area. In this quantitative, retrospective, cross-sectional study, 268 water analysis reports from 1st July to 30th November 2021 were considered with the permission of the Ethics Review Committee of KIU (KIU_ERC_21_194A) and relevant authorities of NWS&DB. Data on selected parameters such as color, turbidity, pH, Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Free Residual Chlorine (FRC), the total number of coliform bacteria, and the total number of Escheretia-Coli (E-Coli) were extracted. Data analysis was done using SPSS (Version 25). All values were considered based on reference ranges of Sri Lanka Standards (SLS) guidelines. The study indicated that, among nine water schemes and four water reservoirs, the highest contributions for purification were from the Maligakanda water scheme (15.9% n =56) and Maligakanda water reservoir (51.6%, n=139). All the samples were fully treated water and the mean of the color was 4.03 Hazen Units which was within the permissible level, though ( 3.7 % n=10) of samples exceeded the range. The mean value of the turbidity was 0.49 Nephelometric Turbidity Unit (NTU) which was within the permissible level and only one sample had deviated from the maximum permissible level. The mean pH value was 7.33 and except for one, all other samples were within the permissible level. The mean value of the TDS was 24.51mg/L and the majority (95.8 %, n= 257) of FRC values varied between 0.6-0.8mg/L which was within the permissible level, while 3.39% (n=10) of samples had 0 mg/L. All samples were free from coliform and E-Coli. Most of the samples were within the permissible range of color, pH, turbidity, TDS, FRC, and free from Coliform and E-Coli which can be recommended for use.