1.
Introduction still do not even have access to safe
Drinking water contamination with
different chemicals and heavy metals,
released from different anthropogenic
sources has become a global concern
(Rapant and Krcmova, 2007). The
contamination of water resources has
important repercussions for the
environment and human health
(Emmanuel et al., 2009; Muhammad et
al., 2011). Generally, drinking water
containing different anions and heavy
metals including Cd, Cr, Co, Hg, Ni, Pb,
Zn etc, has significant adverse effects on
human health either through deficiency
or toxicity due to excessive intake.
Nitrate (NO3) and nitrites (NO2) are
found naturally in water (Jordao et al.,
2002) and the toxicology of nitrate to
humans is mainly attributable to its
reduction to nitrite. According to a
World Health Organization/United
Nations International Children’s
Emergency Fund (WHO/ UNICEF)
report published in 2017, 844 million
people around the world do not have
access to basic drinking water services.
Thus, the vulnerability of populations to
diseases has increased with increased
exposure to contaminated water. This
situation is of most concern in
developing regions in Africa and Asia,
where water quality is deteriorating due
to rapid urbanization, land degradation,
industrialization, deforestation,
unhygienic conditions and poor
sanitation and waste management
practices. According to an estimate, 20%
of the population in eight countries of
sub Saharan Africa uses limited drinking
water services (WHO/ UNICEF 2017).
Similarly, 669 million people in Asia
drinking water sources
(WHO/UNDP/ADB/UNESCAP 2006).
In a very recent study by Akhtar et al.
(2019), 71% water supply schemes in
Mianwali were found to be
bacteriologically unfit and polluted with
fecal coliform bacteria, thereby posing
risk to human health. Consequently,
monitoring of drinking water quality on
regular basis is important in these areas
because ingestion of contaminated water
results in various structural and
functional effects, infectious diarrhea,
vomiting, stomach pain, dysentery,
cholera, enteric fever, cytotoxicity,
mutagenicity and carcinogenicity etc.
(Bain et al. 2014). In recent years, many
developing countries have set reduction
of waterborne diseases and development
of safe water resources as their major
public health goal, and the situation has
slightly improved. However, the
situation is far from perfect, particularly
in rural areas, and this slightly improved
situation may even be damaged by the
increased demand of water and reduction
of water availability due to population
growth and economic development (Li
and Qian 2018a). Therefore, there still is
a long way before gaining the harmony
between human, resources and
environment (Li et al. 2017a). Abtahi
et al. (2015, 2016) proposed two
drinking water quality indices to
understand the general conditions of
drinking source water quality in rural
communities and the overall drinking
water contribution to intakes of dietary
elements. . Particularly, Soldatova et al.
(2018) carried out a very comprehensive
health risk assessment study by
considering the potential toxic impacts
of 11 drinking water contaminants
including NO3 – , NH4 +, Fe, Mn, As,
aluminum (Al), NO2 – , selenium (Se),
mercury (Hg), thallium (Tl) and lead
(Pb). Joshi et al. (2018) assessed the
association of drinking water quality and
meteorological factors with the
incidence of enteroviral diseases among
children in seven metropolitan provinces
of Korea, and concluded that the
drinking water quality was one of the
major determinants on enteroviral
diseases. There are also some further
studies on the governance of drinking
water quality from the point of view of
what governance conditions contribute
to the realization of water quality
objectives (Wuijts et al. 2018) and how
emerging chemical contaminants
governance helps in drinking water
improvement (Hartmann et al. 2018).
Scheili et al. (2016a, b) explored the
impacts of raw water quality, climate
factors and human operational factors on
drinking water quality in small water
distribution systems of Canada, which
indicated that the drinking water quality
was mainly afected by the source water
quality and the quality of source water
was further infuenced by meteorological
and climate factors, while the variability
of human operational factors was the
only factor that could explain the daily
scale variability of drinking water
quality. Human health is adversely
affected by various agents like
pathogens, bacteria, various minerals,
and organic substances that are present
in unsafe drinking water. A significant
proportion of population in developing
countries is suffering from health-related
issues due to unsafe drinking water and
microbial contamination (F. X. R. Van
Leeuwen,2000) . The present study
aimed to: (1) assess the quality of
groundwater which provides all of the
water used by the local population for
drinking purpose; (2) examine the spatial
distribution patterns of water quality
parameters for selected urbanized areas
of Gujranwala; and (3) recommend
safety measures to ensure that water
sources remain suitable for human
consumption since last two decades is
the major objective of the study. This
study also examined the relationship
between microbiological contamination
of water sources and the incidences of
waterborne diseases due to the
consumption of groundwater by local
communities
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