Prevalent fecal contamination in drinking water resources and potential health risks in Swat, Pakistan
Kifayatullah Khan , Yonglong Lu , Mian Abdal Saeed , Hazrat Bilal , Hassan Sher , Hizbullah Khan , Jafar Ali , Pei Wang , Herman Uwizeyimana , Yvette Baninla , Qifeng Li , Zhaoyang Liu , Javed Nawab , Yunqiao Zhou , Chao Su , Ruoyu Liang
DOI:10.1016/j.jes.2017.12.008
Received July 24, 2017,Revised , Accepted December 05, 2017, Available online December 15, 2017
Volume 30,2018,Pages 1-12
Fecal bacteria contaminate water resources and result in associated waterborne diseases. This study assessed drinking water quality and evaluated their potential health risks in Swat, Pakistan. Ground and surface drinking water were randomly collected from upstream to downstream in the River Swat watershed and analyzed for fecal contamination using fecal indicator bacteria (Escherichia coli) and physiochemical parameters (potential of hydrogen, turbidity, temperature, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solid, color, odor and taste). The physiochemical parameters were within their safe limits except in a few locations, whereas, the fecal contaminations in drinking water resources exceeded the drinking water quality standards of Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA), 2008 and World Health Organization (WHO), 2011. Multivariate and univariate analyses revealed that downstream urbanization trend, minimum distance between water sources and pit latrines/sewerage systems, raw sewage deep well injection and amplified urban, pastures and agricultural runoffs having human and animal excreta were the possible sources of contamination. The questionnaire survey revealed that majority of the local people using 10–20 years old drinking water supply schemes at the rate of 73% well supply, 13% hand pump supply, 11% spring supply and 3% river/streams supply, which spreads high prevalence of water borne diseases including hepatitis, intestinal infections and diarrhea, dysentery, cholera, typhoid fever, jaundice and skin diseases in children followed by older and younger adults.
