Assessment of potable groundwater quality and it’s impact on human health: a case study from Sylhet Region, Bangladesh.

Abstract

Potable groundwater is the main source of drinking water in Bangladesh. It is continuously polluted by different pollutants and making negative impact on human health. The objectives of this research were to determine the portable water quality and comparison with the standard set by Department of Environment (DoE, 1997), Bangladesh and World Health Organization (WHO, 2011) for assessing the suitability of consumption. A total of 51 groundwater samples was collected from 17 sampling stations at Companiganj Upazila of Sylhet District to analyze pH, iron (Fe), Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) and Total Suspended Solid (TSS). A semi-structured questionnaire survey with 320 purposively selected respondents were conducted to know the people’s perception on human health impacts of ground water. The results revealed that pH values of all stations were within the permissible limit set by DoE and WHO and the range of concentration of Fe, TDS and TSS were 0.3-1.0 mgl-1, 220-2870 mgl-1 and 10-1900 mgl-1, respectively. 58.82% sampling stations were found very high contamination of Fe and TDS followed by medium 11.76% and 23.53%. The TSS values indicated that 11.76% sampling stations had excellent water, while 88.24% had high level of pollution expressed as unacceptable for drinking purposes. The results indicated that 40% respondents were suffered from skin diseases and followed by hair fall (33.9%) and nail damage (26.1%), respectively. 76.47% groundwater samples extremely contaminated with TDS (>1000mgl-1) and this might be indicated that peoples were susceptible to hypertension or blood pressure, gastro-intestinal irritation and cardiovascular disease. Contaminated groundwater were consumed without any purification process, filtering or treatment because of these system were costly for the poor and ultra-poor. So, they prefer to consume contaminated water without any treatment.