Drinking Water Quality Assessment of Selected Springs of Murree, Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

Abstract

This study was conducted to analyze the drinking water quality of selected springs of Murree, Rwp. For this study, eight areas were choosen namely, Surasi, Burban, Kashmiri Bazar, Thanda Changar, Khanitak and Musyari. For this purpose, 33 water samples were collected from study areas in order to analyze physicochemical, microbiological and heavy metals concentration. The water quality in these areas was checked by comparing the results of these parameters set by Pakistan Environemntal Protection agency and World Health Organization. From the present study, it is shown that all physicochemical parameters including pH, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids, total salts , temperature, total hardness, total alkalinity, carbonates were within the permissible limits expect for turbidity. Futhermore, from selected heavy metals (Cadmium, Chromium, Arsenic) were within the limits expect iron and microbiological parameters were seen higher in few samples of study areas. However, due to increase in tourism activities in Murree and its adjacent areas the quality of natural springs is becoming contaminated. Therefore, anthropogenic activities should be stop near the springs source and there is a need to replace pipelines with high quality plastic pipelines.