Monitoring The Quality of Drinking Water from Filtration Plants in Islamabad, Pakistan

Abstract

Several issues related to the lack of access to clean drinking water indicate the dire need to identify and address the deficiencies intensifying the existing water conditions, especially in the developing countries. In Pakistan, no regular monitoring program exists to assess the water quality of the surface and groundwater bodies. In Islamabad, several CDA owned drinking water filtration plants provide drinking water in municipal limits of Islamabad. These plants are the major source for drinking water to the nearby communities. Regular monitoring and quality control of these filtration plants is of prime importance to ensure the health of the consumers. This study focused to determine the quality of water from CDA filtration plants by using physio-chemical and biological analytical methods employed by American Public Health Association (APHA). The results indicated that the quality of drinking water was safe in terms of its physio-chemical attributes. However, the results of biological analysis were alarming, where 45.5% of the water samples tested positive for Total Coliforms. Comparative analysis with the water quality results of the year 2010 indicated a further worsening of the conditions where the Total Coliform analysis tested positive for 34.8% of the water samples. The results of this study indicate proper monitoring of the operationalization and maintenance of the filtration plants. Further, the filtration plants are unevenly distributed throughout the city.