Abstract:
Water is an extremely essential resource that is important for the survival for all living things. Thus, safe, and good quality drinking water needs to be provided for all. The study was conducted to determine the quality of drinking water in the industrial sectors of Islamabad. A total of 40 samples were collected from the sectors I-9 and I-10 and their physical parameters (pH, EC, TDS, Total salts, and Temperature), chemical parameters (Hardness, NaCl, Cl, Na+ HCO3-, NO32-, Alkalinity, NaHCO3, CO32, and Na2CO3), heavy metals (Fe and As), and biological parameters (Total bacteria, Total coliforms and Salmonella/Shigella) were analysed in the Environment lab of Bahria University. The water samples were collected using the standard protocols for sample collection. The results for physical parameters ranged from for pH (6.73 – 7.23), EC (271 – 700), TDS (193 – 497), Total Salts (126 – 331), Temperature (13.6 – 14.1). The chemical parameters results ranged for Hardness (120 - 470), NaCl (35.1 – 134.55), Cl- (21.3 – 113.6), Na+ (13.8 – 73.6), HCO3- (244 – 915), NO32- (0 – 1.504), Alkalinity (30 – 192), NaHCO3 (252 – 1260), CO32 (240 – 900), Na2CO3 (318 – 1590). The heavy metals that were tested include ranged for Fe (0.054 - 0.419) and As (0). The microbiological parameter ranged from Total bacterial growth (4 - uncountable), Total Coliform (0 – uncountable), and Salmonella/Shigella (0 - 330). The results show that physical parameters pH, Turbidity, Temperature and TDS, of all the drinking water samples were within the set limits by WHO but Total salts and EC were above the set limits in almost all the samples. The chemical parameters showed that Hardness, NaCl, Cl-, Na+ HCO3-, NO32-, and Alkalinity, were within permissible limit set by WHO. The parameters NaHCO3, CO32, and Na2CO3 were above the permissible limit set by WHO. The heavy metals that were tested include Fe and As, some samples that were tested for Fe had elevated levels of Fe present whereas no sample contained As. The results suggest that a lot of sources for drinking water in both the sectors provides contaminated water and better filtration techniques and monitoring need to be put in place to increase the quality of water.
