Subjective assessment of quality of drinking water consumed by the population of the Voronezh region

Abstract

The aim of the study was to study the opinion of the population about the quality of drinking water from various sources, including drinking water, packaged in containers, and its impact on health. For the organization of the questionnaire, a free Internet service Google-form (https://www.google.com/intl/en/forms/about/), of Google, was used. The questionnaire included 20 questions. The survey was conducted by 1,158 residents of the Voronezh region, with a total population of 2,323 million people, which ensured representativeness of the results obtained with a given error of results of ± 5 %. It was found that the majority of respondents (30.7 %) prefer to use water from the centralized water supply system, purifying it in filter jugs. Bottled (packaged) drinking water is consumed by 17.1 % of respondents, while the population of the older age group uses it very rarely (5.9 % or 12 out of 203 people), preferring to use water from a centralized drinking water supply without purification with boiling (40.9 % or 83 out of 203 people), while the shares of a relatively young population in the age groups under 18 years old and 18–30 years old prefer to use bottled drinking water (71.4 and 26.5 %, respectively). Assessment of respondents’ opinions on the quality of drinking water consumed showed that 33.7 % of respondents were fully satisfied, 0.3 % satisfied, 49.2 % partially satisfied, and 16.8 % not satisfied. The respondents most often indicated the presence of scale, a color change, which is generally consistent with the data of objective laboratory control (increased stiffness, high iron concentration). The majority of respondents (74.3 %) do not note the effect of drinking water on their health, however, when taking water procedures, dryness and peeling of the skin were noted after taking a shower or bath — 25.4 % of those questioned, a combination of the negative effects of «dryness and peeling of the skin»+«hair hardness after washing» — 17.8 % of respondents. The identification of the share of the population consuming bottled (packaged) drinking water, as well as the determination of the proportion of the population using individual filters when drinking drinking water from the centralized water supply system, makes it possible to make corrections to the results of estimating the population exposed to an unacceptable level of risk associated with the unsatisfactory quality of drinking water from centralized water supply systems.