Lower Danube Water Quality Quantified through WQI and Multivariate Analysis

Primary school children in the developing world often lack potable water, which may result in a high burden of water-related diseases and poor school performance. The present study aimed to characterize the drinking water quality in primary schools of Pakistan. We used a multistage random-sampling method to select 425 primary schools from selected districts of Sindh province. Standard methods were used to characterize water quality. The results were compared with maximum acceptable values recommended by the Pakistani National Environmental Quality Standards (Pak NEQS) and the World Health Organization (WHO) drinking water quality standards. Groundwater (62%) and surface water (38%) were identified as two major drinking water sources in the selected schools with varying levels of water quality. Among all parameters, dissolved oxygen (DO), pH, and nitrate remained within WHO and Pak NEQS water quality standard limit, while total dissolved solids (TDS) (33%), electrical conductivity (EC) (46%), chloride (34%), turbidity (27%), and hardness (11%) samples exceeded standard limits. All dissolved salts had moderate to strong positive correlations with TDS and EC values. Based on a water quality index (WQI), 74% of primary schools had access to excellent or good quality drinking water compared to 26% of schools that had access to either poor, very poor or unsuitable drinking water. Among all three regions, more schools from South Sindh had either poor, very poor or unsuitable drinking water (33%) compared to the Central (25%) and North zones (15%). Hence, water from these locations is unfit for human consumption and these schools need better water quality management plans to stop the spread of water-related diseases in primary school children.

Section: Water Sample Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drinking Water Quality Mapping Using Water Quality Index and Geospatial Analysis in Primary Schools of Pakistan

Ahmed

Wong

Chua

et al. 2020

“…The economic activities of individuals affect the ecology, environment, and natural resources, and are in turn affected by them [2]. Many studies are indicating the existence of increasing demand and pressure on ecology, environment, and natural resources in terms of quantity and quality based on many factors but mostly due to population growth rate, urbanization, industrialization, expanding agricultural irrigation, and climate change, all of which affect the socioeconomic structure of societies [3][4][5][6][7][8]. These pressures, which are mainly caused by human activities, generally occur on soil and water resources [2,9] and creates difficulties for food supply [10] where sources are main factors, at least, for food security.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Farmers’ Attitudes to the Pricing of Natural Resources for Sustainability: GAP-Şanlıurfa Sampling of Turkey

Aydoğdu

2019

This research aims to evaluate farmers’ attitudes to the pricing of natural resources, mainly water and soil resources, in GAP-Şanlıurfa-Turkey. It will also define farmers’ willingness to accept pricing for the sustainability of resources and explore the potential factors that contribute to such willingness. The data comes from a sample of 1105 farmers in Şanlıurfa who were chosen by a simple random sampling method and participants were interviewed face to face by questionnaires. The logistic regression is used for analysis. The results indicate that 40% of the farmers have a positive attitude to the pricing of resources for protection and sustainability. The most affecting factors are the location of the farmers, the number of agricultural manpower at the household, land amount, ownership status, income derived from agriculture, and livestock. The average willingness-to-pay amount was calculated in USD as $48.8/ha. Where public finance is insufficient to meet the demands, the willingness-to-pay amount may be used in co-investments. In this way, both the financing problem can be overcome and the ownership rate of the users can be increased. Therefore, the results could be helpful for decision- and policy-makers to develop strategies for the sustainability of resources for GAP-Turkey and areas with similar socioeconomic characteristics.

“…The commonly used methods to calculate the WQI include the comprehensive index method [23,30,32], entropy weight method [28], fuzzy evaluation method [26], weighted superposition analytical method [27], and an artificial neural network [34]. In this study, we selected a WQI calculation method including "punitive terms" for items exceeding the standards, which is suitable to reflect the quantity and extent of standard exceedances for various drinking water quality parameters [32] (for the calculation basis and detailed process see the Supplementary Materials).…”

Section: The Wqi and Classificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This score can indicate water quality issues or the suitability of water use [21,22]. In recent years, due to its intuitive and dimensionless characteristics, the WQI has been used by researchers to evaluate the quality of surface water and groundwater [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]. However, the WQI has not been used to evaluate domestic water treatment systems in small centralized or decentralized water supply systems.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating the Efficacy of Point-of-Use Water Treatment Systems Using the Water Quality Index in Rural Southwest China

Zhang

et al. 2020

Rural China faces a shortage of safe drinking water. There are significant challenges associated with small centralized water supply systems and decentralized water supply systems. Many rural residents use point-of-use water treatment systems to ensure the safety of their drinking water. The actual water purification effect and applicability of these water treatment systems in small centralized and decentralized water supply systems need to be determined urgently. In this study, the water quality index (WQI) method was applied for the first time in rural areas to evaluate the effectiveness of point-of-use water treatment systems. A total of 67 reverse osmosis water treatment systems were tested. The rate of compliance with drinking water standards of the decentralized water supply was low (37%). Compared with untreated water, the use of a reverse osmosis water treatment system improved the rate of compliance with drinking water standards, but this effect was not satisfactory (8%). Among the factors potentially affecting the purified water quality of point-of-use water treatment systems (e.g., service time of the water treatment system, service time of the filter element, and type of water source), the service time of the filter element had the most significant influence on the water quality. If the filter element had not been replaced for a long period, the removal effect of the water treatment system on the total hardness, sulfide, copper, and ammonia nitrogen was significantly affected, reducing the quality of the purified water. To ensure the safety of drinking water, it is recommended to replace the filter element of a reverse osmosis water treatment system at least once a year.