Water Quality Assessment of Drinking Water, Communal Faucets, and Traditional Water Pump Inside a University Campus

Abstract

Over the years, the water quality continues to deteriorate at an alarming rate, in fact, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) unsafe water are responsible for an estimated 485,000 deaths worldwide. Thus, this study aimed to determine the water quality of water sources in University of Eastern Philippines – Main Campus in terms of physical properties (pH, temperature, salinity, total dissolved solid), chemical properties (dissolved oxygen, total hardness, chloride, and potassium) and bacteriological (Escherichia coli) content and total coliform count. Samples were collected inside the campus: communal faucets, traditional water pumps, and water refilling stations. To determine its physical properties, a 900 multi-parameter was used and was performed in three trials from each samples. The six water samples have almost the same temperature and shows a salinity close to 0. There is also a presence of potassium, chlorine, total hardness, and dissolved oxygen. Furthermore, the TDS result, shows that the water samples are safe, reliable and suits the recommended standards of EPA. In addition, a bacteriological content was also performed using a 3M Petrifilm, observed for 24-48 hours and shows that the water samples have no presence of E. coli but has presence of total coliform. Thus, the water sources do not meet the level and federal standards for consumption. A clean and accessible water quality is also a fundamental human right and an essential step towards an improving living standards.