Assessment of quality of drinking water sources in Vavuniya MOH division .

Abstract

Vavuniya district is in the south of the northern province of Sri Lanka having four divisions each division consists of one MOH division namely Vavuniya, Cheddikulam,Vavunija south and Vavuniya North . People in Vavunija MOH Divisions are use ground water RO Filtered water and Bottled Water as they are bringing water sources. The main issue with the ground water is the low acceptance By the users, mainly due to high concentration of hardness and calcium. The bottled water and RO Filtered water industries have flourished. However the manufactures’ adherence to the regulation is questionable, raising concerns regarding the quality of bottled and RO water. 53 common and 4 water supply wells, commonly used 7 Bottled brands and 42 RO samples were collected and quality parameter were analyzed based on SLS 614. of 2013. Findings revealed that ground water turbidity(11.2%) and color ( 11.2%),pH(5%),EC(78.6%),TDS(76.2%),Total hardness (83.3%) chloride(9.5%) fluoride(23.8%) nitrate (4.8%)and phosphate (7.2%) have exceeded the SLS limits and 7.1% of the sample shows total coliform contamination.Physical parameters of bottled/RO Water were Within the SLS limits but findings show That 31 % of RO and 57 % of bottled water were acidic in nature and EC, TDS , Total hardness, Fluoride and Chloride were significantly low compared to SLS limits and considered to be low mineral containing water. In terms of the five demographic factors considered, correlation was identified between income, education level and occupation with the selection of drinking water source and there was no significant relationship between gender and age with selection of water sources and weak negative correlation Was observe between perception and selection of drinking water sources.