SAFETY AND QUALITY EVALUATION OF COMMUNITY TAP WATER PURIFICATION PLANTS IN HARIPUR REGION, PAKISTAN

Abstract

Under the Guidelines of World Healh Organization (WHO) and National Institute of Health (NIH), various community-based water filtration plants were installed in many parts of Pakistan. Majority of residents of the areas preferred to take water home from these purification plants. The current  investigation of drinking water quality and safety of these water filtration pants installed at Khalabat Township (KTS) and Haripur city of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province was carried out to assess conditions for public health protection. A number of parameters such as pH, total dissolved solids (TDS), free chlorine, total hardness, calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, chlorides, sulfates, nitrites, and microbial parameters such as total plaste count (TPC), total coliforms and E.coli were analyzed for each water sample. Results showed that in water samples collected, pH ranged between 7.00 to 7.66, total dissolve solid ranged between 341 to 420 mg/l, hardness ranged between 242.6 to 288.6 mg/l, calcium ranged between 81.06 to 98.93  mg/l, magnesium ranged between 4.53 to 5.02 mg/l, chlorides ranged between 30.76 to 53.96 mg/l and alkalinity ranged between 87.33 to 102.66 mg/l, sodium ranged between 19.33 to 34 mg/l, potassium ranged between 0.2 to 0.8 mg/l, sulfates ranged between 55.74 to 61.28 mg/l and nitrites ranged between 1.92 to 2.03 mg/l. In microbiological parameters and total plate count ranged between 2 to 48 CFU/1ml, total coliforms ranged between 0 to 3 CFU/250 ml and E.coli ranged between 0 to 2 CFU/250 ml. The results obtained were compared with permitted levels approved by World Health Organization (WHO), Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) and Environment Protection Agency (EPA). The results showed that all the filters are non-significant biological parameters that can be improved by additional processes in these filters to make them effective against the microbes which will make this water fit for human consumption.