Study of Water Quality in Swabi District, Pakistan

Water pollution is a major problem in the global context. Pakistan’s current population is growing rapidly and the per capita water availability has dropped from 5,600m3 to 1,000m3. Results from various investigations and surveys indicate that water pollution has increased in Pakistan. In several areas, increased arsenic, nitrate and fluoride contamination was detected in drinking water. Therefore, this study was design to evaluate the drinking water quality of various locations of District Swabi, Pakistan. And to evaluate the treatability potential of different coagulants like alum, lime and magnesium sulfates. Samples were collected from various points and were tested for different physical, chemical and biological characteristics of water. The results obtained illustrated that the drinking water is highly polluted in terms of microbial, arsenic, nitrates and fluoride, i.e., 16ppb, 3.2mg/L, 36mg/L and 104MPN/100mL, respectively. Alum, lime and magnesium sulfate were tried as coagulants ranging from 4-48mg/L, 2-24mg/L and 1.5-18mg/L, respectively. Lime was observed to be the most effective coagulant.