Water borne ailments are of serious public health concern in Gilgit Baltistan’s (GB) region of Pakistan. The pollution load on the glacio-fluvial streams and surface water resources of the Chapurson Valley in the Hun...Water borne ailments are of serious public health concern in Gilgit Baltistan’s (GB) region of Pakistan. The pollution load on the glacio-fluvial streams and surface water resources of the Chapurson Valley in the Hunza Nagar area of the GB is increasing as a result of anthropogenic activities and tourism. The present study focuses on the public health quality of drinking water of Chapurson valley. The study addressed the fundamental drinking water quality criteria in order to understand the state of the public health in the valley. To ascertain the current status of physico-chemical, metals, and bacteriological parameters, 25 water samples were collected through deterministic sampling strategy and examined accordingly. The physico-chemical parameters of the water samples collected from the valley were found to meet the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines of drinking water. The water samples showed a pattern of mean metal concentrations in order of Arsenic (As) > Lead (Pb) > Iron (Fe) > Zinc (Zn) > Copper (Cu) > Magnesium (Mg) > Calcium (Ca). As, Cu, Zn, Ca and Mg concentration were under the WHO guidelines range. However, results showed that Pb and Fe are present at much higher concentrations than recommended WHO guidelines. Similarly, the results of the bacteriological analysis indicate that the water samples are heavily contaminated with the organisms of public health importance (including total coliforms (TCC), total faecal coliforms (TFC) and total fecal streptococci (TFS) are more than 3 MPN/100mL). Three principal components, accounting for 48.44% of the total variance, were revealed using principal component analysis (PCA). Bacteriological parameters were shown to be the main determinants of the water quality as depicted by the PCA analysis. The dendrogram of Cluster analysis using the Ward’s method validated the same traits of the sampling locations that were found to be contaminated during geospatial analysis using the Inverse Distance Weight (IDW) method. Based on these findings, it is most l展开更多
文摘Water borne ailments are of serious public health concern in Gilgit Baltistan’s (GB) region of Pakistan. The pollution load on the glacio-fluvial streams and surface water resources of the Chapurson Valley in the Hunza Nagar area of the GB is increasing as a result of anthropogenic activities and tourism. The present study focuses on the public health quality of drinking water of Chapurson valley. The study addressed the fundamental drinking water quality criteria in order to understand the state of the public health in the valley. To ascertain the current status of physico-chemical, metals, and bacteriological parameters, 25 water samples were collected through deterministic sampling strategy and examined accordingly. The physico-chemical parameters of the water samples collected from the valley were found to meet the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines of drinking water. The water samples showed a pattern of mean metal concentrations in order of Arsenic (As) > Lead (Pb) > Iron (Fe) > Zinc (Zn) > Copper (Cu) > Magnesium (Mg) > Calcium (Ca). As, Cu, Zn, Ca and Mg concentration were under the WHO guidelines range. However, results showed that Pb and Fe are present at much higher concentrations than recommended WHO guidelines. Similarly, the results of the bacteriological analysis indicate that the water samples are heavily contaminated with the organisms of public health importance (including total coliforms (TCC), total faecal coliforms (TFC) and total fecal streptococci (TFS) are more than 3 MPN/100mL). Three principal components, accounting for 48.44% of the total variance, were revealed using principal component analysis (PCA). Bacteriological parameters were shown to be the main determinants of the water quality as depicted by the PCA analysis. The dendrogram of Cluster analysis using the Ward’s method validated the same traits of the sampling locations that were found to be contaminated during geospatial analysis using the Inverse Distance Weight (IDW) method. Based on these findings, it is most l
