Basic Water Quality Research Articles

Comparison of the physicochemical and microbiological quality of different brands of bottled water with well water in Lesotho using principal component analysis

Water, though vital for life, is also the route for transmission of water-borne diseases. Bottled water is consumed worldwide for its accessibility and the public perception of purity. However, this perception is usually not based on experimental results to confirm or invalidate it, especially where the sample commodity is not adequately tested for quality. In this study, different bottled water brands in Lesotho were compared to tap and well water samples sourced locally. The standard water testing methods were used to assess the physicochemical and microbiological quality of these samples. The physicochemical parameters such as hardness, alkalinity, pH, chloride, conductivity and nitrate content were below WHO acceptable limits for all water samples tested. Upon the employment of multivariate statistics, one of the bottled water samples (C) was completely indistinguishable from the two well water samples collected in the local village. On the other hand, microbiological analysis indicated that the water samples designated as C (bottle water brand), F (tap water), G (Ha-Mafefooane) and H (Roma community water) had a high microbial load and were contaminated with Escherichia coli, while A, B, D and E samples contained Staphylococcus spp. The presence of such indicator organisms suggests possible poor hygiene during processing. It is therefore recommended that stricter policy measures be taken to regularly monitor bottled water quality, before and after production and storage, to fulfil the basic water quality standards of WHO. Public awareness should also be created that bottled water may still be impure, despite appearing attractive and convenient.

Toxicity variability of urban road stormwater during storage processes in Shenzhen, China: Identification of primary toxicity contributors and implications for reuse safety

Urban road stormwater reuse is one of the most important ways to mitigate water resource shortage. Generally, stormwater is stored prior to reuse or further treatment. This study explored the stormwater toxicity variability during two types of storages, closed and open storages using Chinese hamster ovary cells (CHO), which are mammalian cells. The toxicity test by CHO cells can indirectly represent the risk related to human health. Both rainfall (without reaching ground surfaces) and urban road stormwater were collected to undertake laboratory-scaled storage experiments and basic water quality parameters (pH and dissolved oxygen), microorganisms (E.coli and total bacteria), total organic carbon and heavy metals (copper, Cu, zinc, Zn, nickel, Ni, chromium, Cr, cadmium, Cd and lead, Pb) were also investigated during storage processes. The outcomes showed that rainfall has a better water quality with lower toxicity than urban road stormwater (EC50 values of rainfall were generally twice higher than road stormwater). Additionally, it is found that storing road stormwater for a certain period would reduce the toxicity and hence improve their reuse safety (EC50 values in Day 1 were 10.30 mL and 8.46 mL for closed and open storage respectively while they were 14.3 mL and 13.0 mL in Day 7). Organic matters and Cu are important contributors of toxicity during both closed and open storages while bacteria is also essential in toxicity contribution in open storage. The research results implied that storing stormwater for a certain period has a benefit for reuse safety. This is related to cost-effectiveness in terms of treatment system design to avoid over engineering. Additionally, it is suggested that for reducing toxicity, the stormwater treatment designed before/after storage devices should focus on removal of organic matters and heavy metals (specially Cu) as well as restraining bacteria growth.

Evaluation of potable groundwater zones identification based on WQI and GIS techniques in Adyar River basin, Chennai, Tamilnadu, India

The main objective of this study is to identify the potable groundwater zones in Adyar River Basin (ARB) that forms the major river of Chennai metropolitan and significantly contributes to the demands of this big city's water supply. Twenty eight groundwater samples were collected during postmonsoon and premonsoon seasons in 2016 from the wells of ARB which is downstream of Chembarambakkam Lake, which supplies drinking water to Chennai metropolitan city. All the water samples were analyzed using Portable meter and Ion Chromatography for physico-chemical parameters and major ions such as pH, TDS, Ca, Mg, Na, K, Cl, HCO3, SO4 and NO3. The analytical results were compared with the WHO, USEPA & BIS guideline values and reported that some of the samples exceeds these guideline values for drinking water quality. Spatial distribution maps were prepared to identify the potable groundwater available regions based on these water quality parameters. Piper and Gibbs plots are generated to identify the nature and type of groundwater with processes controls the groundwater chemistry. Principal component analysis was done to interpret the possible sources of chemical compounds present in the groundwater. To precisely delineate the potable groundwater region in ARB, Water Quality Index (WQI) approach is employed with the basic water quality parameters and spatial distribution maps were prepared using GIS for the obtained indexes. It is found that only 10.71% and 17.86% of the study area groundwater is within the excellent water quality for drinking during postmonsoon and premonsoon respectively, whereas 42.86% in postmonsoon and 14.29% in premonsoon is found as poor quality groundwater for drinking. The groundwater of the northwestern and western part of ARB is under very poor and unsuitable category for drinking in both the seasons. This region of ARB is recommended for implementation of artificial groundwater recharging to improve the groundwater quality and make it suitable for drinking.

Lessons Learnt from the Long-Term Management of a Large (Re)constructed Wetland, the Kis-Balaton Protection System (Hungary)

Environmental management decisions should be made based on solid scientific evidence that relies on monitoring and modeling. In practice, changing economic, societal, and political boundary conditions often interfere with management during large, long, and complex projects. The result may be a sub-optimal development path that may finally diverge from the original intentions and be economically or technically ineffective. Nevertheless, unforeseen benefits may be created in the end. The Kis-Balaton wetland system is a typical illustration of such a case. Despite tremendous investments and huge efforts put in monitoring and modeling, the sequence of decisions during implementation can hardly be considered optimal. We use a catchment model and a basic water quality model to coherently review the impacts of management decisions during the 30-year history. Due to the complexity of the system, science mostly excelled in finding explanations for observed changes after the event instead of predicting the impacts of management measures a priori. In parallel, the political setting and sectoral authorities experienced rearrangements during system implementation. Despite being expensive as a water quality management investment originally targeting nutrient removal, the Kis-Balaton wetland system created a huge ecological asset, and thereby became worth the price.

Numerical Simulation of Donghu Lake Hydrodynamics and Water Quality Based on Remote Sensing and MIKE 21

Numerical simulation is an important method used in studying the evolution mechanisms of lake water quality. At the same time, lake water quality inversion technology using the characteristics of spatial optical continuity data from remote sensing satellites is constantly improving. It is, however, a research hotspot to combine the spatial and temporal advantages of both methods, in order to develop accurate simulation and prediction technology for lake water quality. This paper takes Donghu Lake in Wuhan as its research area. The spatial data from remote sensing and water quality monitoring information was used to construct a multi-source nonlinear regression fitting model (genetic algorithm (GA)-back propagation (BP) model) to invert the water quality of the lake. Based on the meteorological and hydrological data, as well as basic water quality data, a hydrodynamic model was established by using the MIKE21 model to simulate the evolution rules of water quality in Donghu Lake. Combining the advantages of the two, the best inversion results were used to provide a data supplement for optimization of the water quality simulation process, improving the accuracy and quality of the simulation. The statistical results were compared with water quality simulation results based on the data measured. The results show that the water quality simulation of chlorophyll a and nitrate nitrogen mean square errors fell to 17% and 24%, from 19% and 31% respectively, after optimization using remote sensing spatial information. The model precision was thus improved, and this is consistent with the actual pollution situation of Donghu Lake.

Establishment of an Automatic Real-Time Monitoring System for Irrigation Water Quality Management.

In order to provide the real-time monitoring for identifying the sources of pollution and improving the irrigation water quality management, the integration of continuous automatic sampling techniques and cloud technologies is essential. In this study, we have established an automatic real-time monitoring system for improving the irrigation water quality management, especially for heavy metals such as Cd, Pb, Cu, Ni, Zn, and Cr. As a part of this work, we have first provided several examples on the basic water quality parameters (e.g., pH and electrical conductance) to demonstrate the capacity of data correction by the smart monitoring system, and then evaluated the trend and variance of water quality parameters for different types of monitoring stations. By doing so, the threshold (to initiate early warming) of different water quality parameters could be dynamically determined by the system, and the authorities could be immediately notified for follow-up actions. We have also provided and discussed the representative results from the real-time automatic monitoring system of heavy metals from different monitoring stations. Finally, we have illustrated the implications of the developed smart monitoring system for ensuring the safety of irrigation water in the near future, including integration with automatic sampling for establishing information exchange platform, estimating fluxes of heavy metals to paddy fields, and combining with green technologies for nonpoint source pollution control.

Water quality and associated microbial ecology in selected Alaska Native communities: Challenges in off-the-grid water supplies

The availability of safe water for potable purposes in Alaska Native communities is limited due to naturally occurring metals and contaminants released from anthropogenic activities, such as drilling and mining. The impacts of climate change are magnified in the arctic and sub-arctic regions and thus have the potential to mobilize contaminants and exacerbate the water contamination problem. Alaska Native communities are vulnerable to such changes in their water quality because of their remote location and limited access to resources. This study initiates an assessment of water quality, including its microbial ecology, in off-the-grid Alaskan water supplies (i.e., primarily groundwater wells). In particular, water quality data were collected from nine communities (22 ground water wells). Water quality analyses included basic water quality parameters, a suite of metals relevant to human health, and microbial community composition. Results revealed location-specific elevated arsenic concentrations based on the underlying geological formation, particularly in the areas located in the geological formation of the McHugh Complex. Diverse microbial communities were observed, and the grouping appeared to be based on elevation. These findings present evidence of compromised water quality in an understudied area in the United States. The results from this study should be considered as a snapshot in time, which highlight the importance for further systematic studies in similar off-the-grid communities.

Heterogeneity in Hyporheic Flow, Pore Water Chemistry, and Microbial Community Composition in an Alpine Streambed

AbstractThe hyporheic zone, where surface water and groundwater mix, is an important microbial habitat where biogeochemical reactions influence water quality. We show that spatial variability in hyporheic flow in the East River near Crested Butte, CO, drives heterogeneity in streambed geochemical conditions and microbial community assemblages, but the diversity of microbial assemblages remains nearly constant throughout the reach. In July 2018, we collected approximately 100 pore water samples at 20‐cm depth and analyzed them for anions, cations, dissolved organic carbon, dissolved organic matter (DOM) quality, and basic water quality parameters. Vertical hydraulic head gradients were also measured to assess the potential for upward or downward flow, and heat tracing was used to quantify vertical flux rates at a subset of locations. We found that regions of the streambed that are more groundwater‐dominated contain less dissolved oxygen, higher concentrations of reduced metals, and more microbially processed, recalcitrant DOM, while more surface water‐dominated locations contain higher dissolved oxygen concentrations and terrestrially derived, labile DOM. 16S rRNA gene sequencing of extracted DNA revealed that microbial community composition varies with geochemical gradients related to hyporheic flow. These findings provide a better understanding of hyporheic controls on streambed biogeochemistry during the baseflow season, which is expected to lengthen with climate change in alpine watersheds due to earlier snowmelt onset and reduced snowpack.

Correlation Analysis and Forecasting the Water Quality by ARIMA Time Series Model of Small Towns’ Sewage Flowing into the Han River - Focusing on the Region of C City, South Korea -

Public sewage system in rural areas is the basic environmental facility to purify water discharged to local rivers. It is important to forecast water quality using a model to manage the self-purification capacity of local rivers. In this paper, not a modeling but a statistical method of ARIMA time-series was used to forecast water quality of small towns’ sewage. In addition, possible correlations between the five basic water quality assessment parameter (BOD, COD, SS, TN, and TP) were determined. The result of this study give insights to improve management strageties for public sewage systems in rural areas.. This research focused six public sewage systems in rural areas at C-city with water quality assessment data since last five years. According to correlation analysis, it was found there was highly positive relationship between BOD-COD, BOD-SS, COD-SS, COD-TN, COD-TP and TN-TP(the highest of Pearson coefficient r .787 with 99 % confidence level). Based on ARIMA forecasting, the density of BOD and TN would increase and those of COD and SS would decrease.

The Application of Remote-Controlled Assisted Surface Water Sampling

Water is a natural resource that is important for both human health and the environment. However, the routine activities of the municipal and industrial sectors can result in the contamination of water resources. The application of remote control water sampling is therefore useful for environmental field work by employing a remote control water sampler in a 700 m radius to collect three samples at once time during a sampling collection within 15 sec at various depths, including 0.50 m, 0.75 m and 1.00 m in depth, respectively (500 ml/sample). Remote control water sampling works with a water flow rate of 35.11±0.09 L/sec on average. For comparison, the performance of the remote control water sampling and a hand-held water sampler were evaluated. The basic water quality parameters involved temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, total dissolved solids, electrical conductivity, and coliform bacteria were found in range of 30.1-30.3 °C, 6.1-6.4, 1.06-1.20 mg/L, 337.0-359.0 mg/L, 686.0-724.0 µS/cm, and 32.0-48.0 colony, respectively, which the results showed were mostly quite similar. This machine functions as an alternative water sampler and is useful for field work applications. Moreover, it provides many advantages, such as reduction of workers, cost benefits, time-savings, and reduction of health risks.

Study on Technical Schemes for Major Pollutants Emission Reduction in Beijing North Canal River Basin Based on Watershed Water Quality Target Management

Water quality target management in watershed is the fundamental choice of city rivers suffering both serious pollution and severe water shortage. In this study, we performed a case study regarding river pollution control plan based on water quality target management in the North Canal River catchment of Beijing section, in order to obtain effective water quality improvement programs. The ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) were taken as the main controlling pollutants. Water quality targets and basic water quality improvement scenarios were set up considering different intensities of population regulation scenarios and gradually strengthening emission control measures. The MIKE11 model was adopted to simulate the effects of a range of water quality improvement scenarios. Results indicated that the basic scenarios could dramatically improve the surface water environment. However, additional intensive and combined measure programs should be implemented to ensure that the water quality would basically meet the targets of corresponding water function zones. The results highlight the need to implement water conservation in water shortage urban river basin and show the importance of enhancing drainage communication and conducting ecological water replenishment in such kind basins. It is expected to provide a reference for the water environment management practice of other metropolis in the world facing both crisis of water resource shortage and water environment pollution.

Study on Technical Schemes for Major Pollutants Emission Reduction in Beijing North Canal River Basin Based on Watershed Water Quality Target Management

Water quality target management in watershed is the fundamental choice of city rivers suffering both serious pollution and severe water shortage. In this study, we performed a case study regarding river pollution control plan based on water quality target management in the North Canal River catchment of Beijing section, in order to obtain effective water quality improvement programs. The ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) were taken as the main controlling pollutants. Water quality targets and basic water quality improvement scenarios were set up considering different intensities of population regulation scenarios and gradually strengthening emission control measures. The MIKE11 model was adopted to simulate the effects of a range of water quality improvement scenarios. Results indicated that the basic scenarios could dramatically improve the surface water environment. However, additional intensive and combined measure programs should be implemented to ensure that the water quality would basically meet the targets of corresponding water function zones. The results highlight the need to implement water conservation in water shortage urban river basin and show the importance of enhancing drainage communication and conducting ecological water replenishment in such kind basins. It is expected to provide a reference for the water environment management practice of other metropolis in the world facing both crisis of water resource shortage and water environment pollution.

Spatiotemporal and Longitudinal Variability of Hydro-meteorology, Basic Water Quality and Dominant Algal Assemblages in the Eight Weir Pools of Regulated River (Nakdong)

Spatiotemporal and Longitudinal Variability of Hydro-meteorology, Basic Water Quality and Dominant Algal Assemblages in the Eight Weir Pools of Regulated River (Nakdong)

Factors influencing amphibian distributions in Grand Teton National Park and western Wyoming

Predicting the distribution of amphibians can be difficult because habitat suitability may depend on a variety of environmental and anthropogenic factors, including water quality of wetlands, geology of watersheds, and presence of invasive pathogens. Previous studies hypothesized that water chemistry may influence the rate of chytrid infection in amphibians where higher conductivity sites may have less infection. We sampled two watersheds in Grand Teton National Park and 3 watersheds adjacent to the park, and measured amphibian presence, chytrid infection, basic water quality, major ion concentrations and geology of the wetland. This is part of a larger project where we are comparing amphibian presence and infection rate among wetlands in the Gros Ventre, Wind River, and Teton Ranges. We sampled watersheds that were predominately limestone, granite or a mixture. Water quality varied among sites with higher conductivity and ion concentrations for limestone watersheds compared to granite watersheds. This report includes preliminary results of amphibian surveys and water quality analyses. Future analyses will relate occupancy rates of amphibians to environmental factors, including water chemistry, geology, and presence of chytrid fungus, as well as comparing detection rates of amphibians with environmental DNA (eDNA) and visual observation surveys.
 
 Featured photo by Neal Herbert on Flickr. https://flic.kr/p/2gv9PJA

Rapid drinking water safety estimation in cities: Piloting a globally scalable method in Cochabamba, Bolivia

BackgroundSystematically collected and comparable data on drinking water safety at city-scale is currently unavailable, despite the stated importance of water safety monitoring at scale under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We developed a rapid drinking water quality assessment methodology intended to be replicable across all cities and useful for monitoring towards achieving SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation). MethodsWe collected drinking water samples at the point-of-consumption for basic microbial, physical and chemical water quality analysis and conducted household surveys on drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene access from 80 households in the city of Cochabamba over 1 week. We categorized the household's water service level according to the SDG 6 framework. ResultsWe estimated an average time requirement of 6.4 person-hours and a consumable cost of US $51 per household (n = 80). In this cross-sectional study, 71% of drinking water samples met World Health Organization (WHO) microbiological safety criteria, 96% met WHO chemical quality criteria, and all met WHO aesthetic quality criteria. However, only 18% of the households were categorized as having safely managed drinking water services. None met the criteria for having safely managed sanitation services; nonetheless, 81% had basic sanitation services and 78% had basic hygiene facilities. ConclusionsThis method can generate basic water safety data for a city at a relatively low cost in terms of person-time and materials, yielding useful information for inter-city analyses. Because 29% of samples did not meet microbiological safety criteria, 22% of the households did not have access to handwashing facilities and none had safe sanitation services, we concluded that Cochabamba did not meet normative SDG 6 targets when surveyed. Our study further suggests that water quality at point-of-use more accurately characterizes drinking water safety than infrastructure type.

Long-term trends and probability distributions of river water quality variables and their relationships with climate elasticity characteristics.

The statistical characteristics of surface water quality play fundamental roles in climate change-related studies. Climatic drivers will affect surface water quality, and such potential effects will vary between different regions and climate types. Here, we studied the long-term trends and probability distributions of water quality variables (including water temperature, pH, turbidity, DO, C-,N-,P-variables, etc.) and their relationship with climate elasticity, a non-parametric estimator of the sensitivity of the response of water quality to climate drivers, based on three typical watersheds: the Yukon, the Mekong, and the Murray. Significant decreasing trends were observed in the Yukon and Murray watersheds for the majority of water quality variables, except turbidity and filtered nitrate plus nitrite, whereas increasing trends were exhibited by most water quality variables in the Mekong watershed. Compared with the Yukon and Murray watersheds, the probability distributions of most water quality variables and their corresponding percentage change-based elasticity estimator samples are characterized by a heavy-tailed distribution in the Mekong watershed. The precipitation elasticity results are statistically meaningful in the Mekong and Murray watersheds, whereas temperature elasticity is significant in the Yukon watershed. The revealed characteristics of long-term trends and probability distributions pattern of basic water quality variables are helpful for water quality modeling. The findings suggested that the increasing trends, heavy-tailed probability distribution patterns, and the response of water quality to precipitation and temperature, especially in densely populated developing areas, can be modulated by restoration efforts, which will reduce the potential impacts of climatic and non-climatic factors.

Capacity Building through Water Quality and Safety Analyses in Herat, Afghanistan

Contaminated water is a leading cause of approximately 600 million annual cases of foodborne disease globally. Twenty percent of all child mortality in Afghanistan is attributed to diarrheal diseases. There are limited data on water quality and safety in Afghanistan as well as limited laboratory capacity for food and water analyses. The purpose of this study was to conduct a regional water assessment study and, in doing so, train the first class of food technology undergraduate students at Herat University (Herat City, Afghanistan) in basic water quality and safety laboratory techniques. In total, 235 water samples from private wells ( n = 128) and municipal water system taps ( n = 107) were collected from Herat Province, Afghanistan. Samples were aseptically collected, transferred, and analyzed at the Herat University Food Technology Laboratory for nitrate, nitrite, lead, phosphate, and arsenic concentrations; hardness; total coliforms; and Escherichia coli. We did not detect arsenic in any sample tested ( n = 234), and lead levels in samples tested ( n = 28) were below the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency maximum contaminant level (15 μg/L). In contrast, 38 of 232 samples had nitrate (NO3) levels greater than the maximum contaminant level (10 mg/L) and 15 of 232 samples had nitrite (NO2) levels > 0.3 mg/L. On average, well water was harder than municipal water; there were no differences in phosphate (PO4) levels. Furthermore, 93 (43.9%) of 212 samples had detectable coliforms (average CFU/100 mL) and 52 (24.3%) of 214 samples had detectable E. coli (average 28.6 CFU/100 mL). E. coli was detected in 21.4 and 26.7% of municipal and well water samples, respectively. This study indicates a clear need for systematic analyses of Herat City water to develop plans for water quality and safety improvement and management. The students engaged in the research project now have the basic research and analytical skills needed to address water and foodborne disease issues endemic in the area.

Distribution and Treatment of Antibiotics in Typical WWTPs in Small Towns in China

As a new, persistent pollutant in the environment, antibiotics are one of the most important pollutants in sewage treatment plants. The objective of this work was to investigate the concentration distribution and removal efficiency of antibiotics for three typical wastewater treatment technologies applied in small towns (CASS, A2/O, and Orbal oxidation ditch) using solid phase extraction-liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Sixteen typical antibiotics, including four tetracyclines, three β-lactams, four macrolides, three quinolones, and two sulfonamides, were analyzed in the influent and effluent. In addition, the relationship between the presence of antibiotics and the basic water quality (NH4+-N, TN, COD, pH, etc.) in the WWTPs was analyzed. The results showed that ofloxacin (OFX) and norfloxacin (NOR) were the main antibiotics in the WWTPs in this study. However, the concentrations of these two antibiotics in the effluent were low, indicating effective antibiotic removal efficiency. The antibiotic removal efficiency was higher than 60% in five of the WWTPs. Compared with the A2/O process, the CASS and Orbal oxidation ditch technologies resulted in higher removals of most of the antibiotics. In addition, the CASS and A2/O processes worked best for the removal of β-lactam [ampicillin (AMP) and penicillin (PCN)], quinolones (ENR, NOR, and OFX), and macrolide (CLR), while the Orbal oxidation ditch worked best for the removal of tetracyclines (TC and OTC) and sulfonamides [sulfadiazine (SD)]. The correlation between antibiotic concentration and the basic parameters of water quality (NH4+-N, TN, COD, pH, etc.) was analyzed, and it was found that the water quality parameters had some effect on the concentration of antibiotics. With higher concentrations of the basic water quality parameters, higher the concentration of erythromycin (EM), roxithromycin (ROX), 4-epi-Tetracycline (E-TC), clarithromycin (CLR), ciprofloxacin (CIP), ofloxacin (OFX), epioxytetracycline (E-OTC), tetracyclines (TC), oxytetracycline (OTC), and norfloxacin (NOR) were observed. In summary, it is important to ensure the stable operation of small town WWTPs to reduce the ecological risk of antibiotics.

Quantifying the connections\u2014linkages between land-use and water in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal

Land development without thoughtful water supply planning can lead to unsustainability. In practice, management of our lands and waters is often unintegrated. We present new land-use, ecological stream health, water quality, and streamflow data from nine perennial watersheds in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, in the 2016 monsoon (i.e., August and September) and 2017 pre-monsoon (i.e., April and May) periods. Our goal was to improve understanding of the longitudinal linkages between land-use and water. At a total of 38 locations, the Rapid Stream Assessment (RSA) protocol was used to characterize stream ecology, basic water quality parameters were collected with a handheld WTW multi-parameter meter, and stream flow was measured with a SonTek FlowTracker Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter. A pixel-based supervised classification method was used to create a 30-m gridded land use coverage from a Landsat 8 image scene captured in the fall of 2015. Our results indicated that land-use had a statistically significant impact on water quality, with built land-uses (high and low) having the greatest influence. Upstream locations of six of the nine watersheds investigated had near natural status (i.e., river quality class (RQC) 1) and water could be used for all purposes (after standard treatments as required). However, downstream RSA measurements for all nine watersheds had RQC 5 (i.e., most highly impaired). Generally, water quality deteriorated from monsoon 2016 to pre-monsoon 2017. Our findings reinforce the importance of integrated land and water management and highlight the urgency of addressing waste management issues in the Kathmandu Valley.

Spatial distribution of uranium and basic water quality parameter in the capital of Bihar and consequent ingestion dose.

Investigation of presence ofUranium (U) in groundwater/drinking water is an active are of research due to itschemical and radiological toxicity as well as long-term health effects. The current study had the objective of estimating U as a naturally occurring radioactive element in groundwater samples and assessment of ingestion dose, when groundwater is the source of drinking water. The random sampling method was chosen for the collection of samples based on population density. The estimation of U was done using LED fluorimeter. Statistical tools were applied to analyze the data and its spatial distribution. The U concentrations in three blocks of urban Patna were well below the permissible limits suggested by different health agencies of the world. A correlation test was performed to analyze the association of U with other physiochemical parameters of water samples. It was found that the sulfate, chloride, calcium, hardness, alkalinity, TDS, salinity, and ORP were positively correlated, whereas fluoride, phosphate, magnesium, dissolved oxygen, and pH were negatively correlated with U concentrations. The ingestion dose due to U, occurring in groundwater, was found to vary from 0.2-27.0μSvy-1 with a mean of 4.2μSvy-1, which was well below the recommended limit of 0.1mSv (WHO WHO Chron 38:104-108, 2012).Therefore, the water in this region is fit for drinking purposes.