Drinking water quality monitoring of centralized water storage reservoirs in various zones of the National University

Physico-chemical and microbiological pollutants may compromise quality of drinking water. This study aims to highlight various physico-chemical and microbial parameters of drinking water samples from centralized water storage reservoirs of National University. Major water quality parameters which were examined in this study includes pH, Electrical conductivity (EC), Turbidity, Total suspended solids (TSS), Total dissolved solids (TDS), Dissolved oxygen (DO), Residual chlorine, Hardness, Alkalinity. Moreover, microbial analysis of water samples was also carried out through Most Probable Number technique (MPN). Results show that all the physico-chemical parameters were within prescribed limits of World Health Organization and Pakistan Drinking Water Quality Standards (WHO/PDWQS) in both underground and overhead water storage reservoirs except DO ( 9.05-9.2 and 9.05-9.1 mg/L ), TSS (10-20 and 3.3-10 mg/L) and residual chlorine (0.08-0.14 and 0.19-0.28 mg/L) respectively. The MPN index values for both underground and overhead water storage reservoirs ranges between 16- >23 and 1.1-12 respectively and it shows  high microbial contamination in water due to low detection of residual chlorine. The results highlight that water from centralized water storage reservoirs of National University is unfit for drinking purposes. Statistical analysis such as paired t-test also reveals that water quality parameters from underground and overhead storage reservoirs are not significantly different from each other except EC and TDS having P values <0.05. It is necessary to safeguard water contamination in water storage reservoirs by monitoring regular inspections and chemical cleaning of water storage reservoirs otherwise it will cause serious threats to well-being of the community. Key words: water storage reservoirs, drinking water, microbial quality of water, physico-chemical parameters, paired t-test