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Nawaz R, Nasim I, Irfan A, Islam A, Naeem A, Ghani N, Irshad MA, Latif M, Nisa BU, Ullah R. Water Quality Index and Human Health Risk Assessment of Drinking Water in Selected Urban Areas of a Mega City. Toxics 2023; 11:577. [PMID: 37505543 PMCID: PMC10385057 DOI: 10.3390/toxics11070577] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2023] [Revised: 06/14/2023] [Accepted: 06/27/2023] [Indexed: 07/29/2023]
Abstract
The present study was conducted to evaluate the quality of drinking water and assess the potential health hazards due to water contaminants in selected urban areas of Lahore, Pakistan. Water samples were collected from ten sites and analyzed for different physico-chemical parameters including turbidity, color, pH, total dissolved solids (TDS), nitrates, fluoride, residual chlorine, and total hardness. Additionally, heavy metal (arsenic) and microbial parameters (E. coli) were also determined in the water samples. Drinking water quality evaluation indices, including the water quality index (WQI) for physico-chemical and biological parameters and human health risk assessment (HHRA) for heavy metal were estimated using the analytical results of the target parameters. It was found in most of the areas that the levels of arsenic, fluoride, TDS, and residual chlorine were higher than those recommended by the National Environmental Quality Standard (NEQS) and World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. In addition to the physico-chemical parameters, microbial content (E. coli) was also found in the drinking water samples of the selected areas. Statistical analysis of the results indicated that levels of target parameters in drinking water samples are significantly different between sampling sites. The WQI for all physico-chemical and microbial parameters indicated that drinking water in most of the areas was unfit and unsuitable (WQI > 100) for drinking purposes except for the water of Bhatti Gate and Chota Gaon Shahdara with a WQI of 87 and 91, respectively. Drinking water in these areas had a very poor WQI rating. According to HHRA, drinking water from the selected sites was found to be of high risk to children and adults. The carcinogenic risk of arsenic indicated that all samples were of high risk to both adults and children (4.60 and 4.37 × 10-3, respectively). Regular monitoring of drinking water quality is essential, and proactive measures must be implemented to ensure the treatment and availability of safe drinking water in urban areas.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rab Nawaz
- Department of Environmental Sciences, The University of Lahore, Lahore 54000, Pakistan
- Research and Knowledge Transfer, INTI International University, Putra Nilai 71800, Malaysia
| | - Iqra Nasim
- Department of Environmental Sciences, The University of Lahore, Lahore 54000, Pakistan
- Department of Environmental Sciences, Lahore College for Women University, Lahore 54000, Pakistan
| | - Ali Irfan
- Department of Chemistry, Government College University Faisalabad, Faisalabad 38000, Pakistan
| | - Amjad Islam
- College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shantou University, Shantou 515031, China
| | - Ayesha Naeem
- Department of Environmental Sciences, The University of Lahore, Lahore 54000, Pakistan
| | - Nadia Ghani
- Department of Environmental Sciences, Lahore College for Women University, Lahore 54000, Pakistan
| | - Muhammad Atif Irshad
- Department of Environmental Sciences, The University of Lahore, Lahore 54000, Pakistan
| | - Maria Latif
- Department of Environmental Sciences, The University of Lahore, Lahore 54000, Pakistan
| | - Badar Un Nisa
- Department of Chemistry, The University of Lahore, Sargodha 40100, Pakistan
| | - Riaz Ullah
- Department of Pharmacognosy, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
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