Assessment of drinking water quality in Tirana city, Albania

The analysis of drinking-water for metal contamination is an important step in ensuring humanand environmental health. Samples were analyzed in order to determine the water quality in 30 tap fromTirana, Albania during the year 2018. The concentrations of 26 metals (µg/L) in drinking-water sampleswere determined using ICP-MS for all samples collected from different sites. With purpose to see if theconcentrations of these elements in water have a negative impact on health problems, the results obtainedwere compared with the standard classification proposed by the WHO. From the comparison is obviouslythat the drinking water of Tirana is within the permitted norms regarding the metal content. The data setobtained was subjected to the FA analysis to identify water quality variables. Four dominant factors wereextracted. FA1 represent the association of Na, Mg, Al, K, V, As, Se, Mo, Sb and Ba with lithogenic andanthropogenic emission (elements derived from traffic), and FA3 (Ni, Cu, Zn, Hg and Pb) is probablyrelated to the influence of the old pipelines or their aerial deposition at the source.