Assessment of water quality in the piped water supply system by using Water Quality index method

Drinking water of the right and approved quality is a basic requirement for the development of any civilization. According to SDG 6 it is crucial to provide every citizen with equitable water quality and quantity.

The study area is the smart city of Bhubaneswar with 67 wards and three zones: the north zone, south-west zone, and south-east zone with around 12.4 lakhs population. To maintain the water quality in the supply pipeline in this city, which is always assumed to be safe, it needs to be examined within certain time intervals to check the contamination. In this context, studies on water quality parameters in the supply pipeline network from different anticipated vulnerable areas have been collected for testing. In this context, water samples were collected from areas near industries, market complexes, educational institutions, and construction sites of each ward of Bhubaneswar. Nearly 10 water quality parameters were tested and analyzed using the weighted arithmetic water quality index method. This method takes input of all the parameters and provides the overall water quality index value, which classifies the water in different grades like excellent, good, poor, and very poor quality.

According to the WHO (2011) guidelines, the study found that there are deviation in the parameters like 10.78% in pH, 19.48% in dissolved oxygen, 43.88% in conductivity, and 22.95% in hardness from the standard limit, but the overall water quality index indicates the water is not in the poor and very poor range. Also, water quality index values identify that the water in the south-east zone is excellent compared to the north and south-west zones. The reason for the slight deterioration is due to the underground cable works, road works and also some areas where the old pipeline system still exists due to personal encroachment of people as per Public health engineering department.