Drinking suitability assessment of treated and untreated ground water used in Bahawalpur City of Pakistan

Abstract

Background: Availability and supply of clean drinking water is essential for
healthiness of the people. Bahawalpur is amongst the rapidly growing cities of
Pakistan. Underground water table is declining and contamination in water is
increasing over time. The city is dependent upon ground water, whereas the
availability of safe drinking water is becoming a major challenge for both
government and city dwellers.
Objectives: The basic objectives of the study were to provide a precise assessment
of the drinking suitability of treated and untreated ground water used in
Bahawalpur city and to point out appropriate drinking water areas.
Methods: Drinking water samples were obtained from 26 water filtration plants
installed by the government in Bahawalpur City of Punjab Province. At the same
time, samples of un-filtered ground water were also collected from the supply
sources of filtration plants and houses located nearest to the filtration plants. The
collected samples were tested from the labs of Pakistan Council of Research in
Water Resources and Public Health Engineering Department.
Results: Results show that assessed parameters of only 7.7% samples of unfiltered
ground water fall within permissible limits for drinking and 92.3% samples deviate
from WHO standards. Results were compared with the international standards for
drinking water suitability set by WHO. Thus, unfiltered ground water of most of the
areas of Bahawalpur City is unhealthy and not suitable for drinking. Whilst the
assessed parameters of 65.4% of the samples of filtered ground water fall within
the permissible limits of WHO and are found suitable to be used for drinking
purpose.
Conclusion: This study concluded that the use of untreated ground water in
Bahawalpur City is un-healthy. Thus, more filtration plants are required to be
installed and properly managed to provide safe drinking water to the masses.