Hygienic assessment of iron content in the sources of household and drinking water supply of the Vladimir region

Introduction. One of the most important tasks for ensuring the sanitary and epidemiological well-being of the population of the Vladimir region remains the provision of high-quality drinking water. Due to the fact that most of the population of the region consumes water from underground sources, which is characterized by an increased iron content, a hygienic assessment of the water of household drinking sources was carried out according to the content of this element. Materials and methods. The paper presents the data of own research of the Department of Biology and Ecology of the Vladimir State University for 2022. During this period, the authors of the work investigated about one hundred nine samples of water from the household and drinking centralized and non-centralized water supply of the Vladimir region. Water samples were taken in the largest settlements (these are district centers, a regional city and large district settlements) and from drinking water sources of individual farms located in the territory of the region in various districts. The iron content in water was determined on a Hach Lange DR 6000 spectrophotometer using LCK521 and LCK320 cuvette tests. Results. Drinking water of the centralized water supply of the Vladimir region in terms of iron content in most administrative centers has been established to meet regulatory requirements and be safe for this indicator for the health of the resident population. Most of the water samples taken from non-centralized water supply sources have significant exceedances of regulatory values. The average excess of MPC in the region is 6.5 times, which is primarily due to the specifics of geochemical the composition of the water‒bearing rocks of these territories. Limitations of the study are related to the number of analyzed water samples, which reduces the possibility of interpolation of the obtained data over the entire territory of the region. Conclusion. To provide the population with high-quality drinking water, local governments that do not have sufficient funds to purchase de-ironing treatment plants need to initiate a procedure for applying for subsidies under existing state programs for the implementation of measures for the construction, reconstruction, and modernization of water supply systems. Residents of the region are recommended to use household filters to purify water from those components-pollutants that are characteristic of the groundwater of these territories.