Monitoring And Analysis Of Drinking Water In Shuzhou's Countryside

Objective: The quality of drinking water is always a key factor to health of residents in countryside. Hence, improving its quality becomes a most important way to ensure their health as well as their life quality. In the mean time, it brings great benefits to the harmonious development of economies and communities for countryside areas. This thesis investigates and monitors the quality of drinking water in Suzhou's countryside areas in 2007. Therefore, it can be a good reference and basis for making scientific and efficient improvements of drink water in rural counties.Method: The investigation was carried out in five counties administered by Shuzhou city. For fully consideration of representativeness, the monitoring sites were randomly picked based on the ratio of population and various water sources (surface water and underground water). There are no less than 10 sites in each county and total 71 in all counties including 65 for surface water and 6 for underground water. For centralized water supply, samples were taken at end points of water supplying sources; for scattered water supply, samples were taken from farmers'water disposition tanks. Samples were collected according to《The standard testing methods for drinking water》(GB5750) both in a wet period and a dry season. The water qualities were evaluated by《Standards for Drinking Water Quality》(GB5750)and on-site investigations. The investigation was started from January 2007 and ended by December 2007.Result: 114 samples were collected, 64 from river water, 43 from lake water and 7 from deep wells. They are also categorized to 71 from the wet period and 43 from the dry season. 90 samples of 114 passed tests; the rate is 78.9%. The failed specifications were focused on the residual free chlorine, turbidity and total genes. Their pass rates were 86.9%, 87.8% and 96.5%. Compared to pass rates (62.8%, P=0.001) of samples from the dry season, rates of samples from the wet period is much higher to 88.7%. There is no significant difference (P>0.05) for quality of drinking water between the countryside and the city in same periods.Conclusion: The main failed specifications of drinking water in Suzhou's countryside are residual free chlorine, turbidity, total genes, total colon bacillus and ferrum. It demonstrates that there are organic contamination and unqualified disinfection process. The water's quality in wet period is much higher than that in dry season due to better self purification caused by maximum stream and water level. Based on the investigation, the water quality of Shuzhou's countryside is not so optimistical. Centralized water supply and related experience is strongly recommended to be populized with the aids of government and social circles. It is also important to make effective management, especially disinfection and routine management.