Suitability of drinking water quality in Chittagong Metropolitan City, Bangladesh: a research on urban water bodies (UWBs) using multivariate analytic techniques

Abstract

This is empirical research that focuses on the urban water ecosystems in the humid tropics of South Asia. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the quality of drinking water in the urban water bodies (UWBs) of Chittagong Metropolitan City (CMC), Bangladesh. The field data was centered on the analysis and depiction of twenty-three (23) water quality parameters, collected from twenty-one (21) spatial observation units. Analytic tools include suitability analysis, correlation matrix, principal component analysis (PCA), and cluster analysis (CA) as a means to an end. The data were analyzed using SPSS. The analysis reveals that drinking water quality in studied UWBs was inappropriate during the monsoon season. Parameters that crossed the extreme permissible concentration incorporate EC, BOD, COD, Turbidity, Nitrate, Total coliform, and Fecal coliform. The PCA extracted four factors (PC1–4) with an eigenvalue of 10.23, explaining 73.1% of the total variation in the dataset in cumulative terms. The CA recognized three (3) broad groups of the sampling stations. Group A represents nine cases, suffering the most from pollution concentration in CMC. Awareness building at all levels is advocated to improve clean water sources, increase service provision, and ensure public health safeguards.