Drinking Water Quality Assessment of Metro Bus Stations of Islamabad and Rawalpindi

Abstract

Water is the most wonderful substance. Almost 70% of our planet consists of water. The human body comprises almost 60% of water. Safe and clean water is necessary for all purposes in daily life which include different practices like washing, drinking, cooking, and personal cleanliness (Frances and Brack, 2018). Water is known as a universal solvent because it can dissolve a large proportion of natural or man-made substances (Balasubramanian, 2015). Fecal contaminated water is the main reason for waterborne disease. With quick urbanization, the chemical feature of water quality has contributed to increasing concerns as toxic chemicals industrial effluents pose a high hazard to life (Alurralde et al., 1998). Pakistan has been blessed with water resources, but unfortunately over the years, industrial development, overpopulation, and rapid growth have decelerated the water resources (Daud et al., 2017). Different studies show that the majority of the supplies of potable water are polluted (Aziz, 2005). Pakistan ranks 80 out of 122 nations, and both ground and surface drinking water sources are polluted throughout the country with toxic metals, microbes, and pesticides (Nabeela et al., 2014). Even currently some rural areas in Pakistan have no availability of fresh and clean water for regular use (Shahid et al., 2014). The quality of drinking water in Pakistan is reducing day by day due to the waste and pollutants released by the industries. Channeled water also gets contaminated because the network of the pipeline is not planned and laid poorly (Imran et al., 2018).