Drinking Water Quality Mapping Using Water Quality Index and Geospatial Analysis in Primary Schools of Pakistan

Jamil Ahmed,Yan Piaw Chua,Li Ping Wong,Najeebullah Channa

doi:10.3390/w12123382

Jamil Ahmed, Yan Piaw Chua + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/w12123382

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Abstract

Primary school children in the developing world often lack potable water, which may result in a high burden of water-related diseases and poor school performance. The present study aimed to characterize the drinking water quality in primary schools of Pakistan. We used a multistage random-sampling method to select 425 primary schools from selected districts of Sindh province. Standard methods were used to characterize water quality. The results were compared with maximum acceptable values recommended by the Pakistani National Environmental Quality Standards (Pak NEQS) and the World Health Organization (WHO) drinking water quality standards. Groundwater (62%) and surface water (38%) were identified as two major drinking water sources in the selected schools with varying levels of water quality. Among all parameters, dissolved oxygen (DO), pH, and nitrate remained within WHO and Pak NEQS water quality standard limit, while total dissolved solids (TDS) (33%), electrical conductivity (EC) (46%), chloride (34%), turbidity (27%), and hardness (11%) samples exceeded standard limits. All dissolved salts had moderate to strong positive correlations with TDS and EC values. Based on a water quality index (WQI), 74% of primary schools had access to excellent or good quality drinking water compared to 26% of schools that had access to either poor, very poor or unsuitable drinking water. Among all three regions, more schools from South Sindh had either poor, very poor or unsuitable drinking water (33%) compared to the Central (25%) and North zones (15%). Hence, water from these locations is unfit for human consumption and these schools need better water quality management plans to stop the spread of water-related diseases in primary school children.

Highlights

Drinking water quality is a major concern for human health and wellbeing
The water quality index (WQI) of schools (Figure 4) in central Sindh that primarily used groundwater indicated an overall good quality drinking water; over half (53%) of the schools have excellent drinking water, 21% possess good quality drinking water, followed by 18% with poor water, 6% with very poor water, and 1% with water that is unsuitable for drinking
We presume variation in water quality by each season, since we considered a single water sample from each primary school; some of the WQI values might be strongly affected by variations along the year and suggest that this work must be improved by collecting data during a more extended period to identify these processes and its repercussions

Summary

Introduction

Drinking water quality is a major concern for human health and wellbeing. The water quality is affected by water contaminants which affect human health. Physiochemical and microbiological parameters are important determinants for assessing industrial, irrigation, and domestic water quality. Among the physicochemical properties of drinking water, the common parameters used to present drinking water quality are pH, TDS, turbidity, hardness, nitrate, EC, chloride, phosphate, etc. The drinking water quality is compromised if their values exceed concentrations above the standard limits set by Pakistan Enviromental Protection agency (EPA) and World Health Organization (WHO) [1,2,3].

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