AccScience Publishing / AJWEP / Volume 22 / Issue 1 / DOI: 10.36922/ajwep.8163
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ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

Water quality assessment and health risk evaluation in Kushtia Municipality, Bangladesh: A comparative analysis of untreated water, treated water, and public water points

Md. Anik Hossain1 ,  Md. Inzamul Haque1* ,  Md. Asikur Rahman1 ,  Most. Atia Parvin1 ,  Abul Bashar1
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1 Department of Geography and Environment, Faculty of Sciences, Islamic University, Kushtia, Khulna, Bangladesh
AJWEP 2025, 22(1), 67–82; https://doi.org/10.36922/ajwep.8163
Submitted: 24 December 2024 | Revised: 18 February 2025 | Accepted: 19 February 2025 | Published: 11 March 2025
© 2025 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
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Abstract

Pipeline water supply, a primary source in urban areas, delivers treated water from water treatment plants (WTPs) directly to consumers. This study comprehensively evaluates water quality in Kushtia Municipality, Bangladesh, focusing on untreated water, treated water, and freely available public water point (PWP) samples. Twelve water samples were collected from March 1 to 7, 2024, and analyzed for physicochemical and microbiological parameters using standard methods. The treatment efficiency, water quality index (WQI), Nemerow pollution index (NPI), and hazard quotient were calculated based on the analytical measurements. Findings indicate that, among the 12 assessed parameters, only three comply with Bangladesh’s water quality standards. The mean cumulative efficiency shows that WTP 2 exhibits the highest treatment efficiency (30.76%), whereas WTP 1 has the lowest (12.34%). While WQI scores classify all treated and PWP samples as “unfit” for consumption, treated water demonstrates comparatively better quality than PWPs. The NPI analysis identifies the primary contributing pollutants in the following order: Biochemical oxygen demand>hardness>alkalinity>iron>temperature>electrical conductivity. The health risk assessment reveals no significant risk of iron ingestion or dermal exposure for adults and children. However, long-term ingestion of arsenic-contaminated water presents a moderate health risk for both groups, while dermal contact poses no risk.

Keywords
Health risk assessment
Kushtia municipality
Nemerow pollution index
Physicochemical and microbiological parameters
Water quality index
Water treatment plants
Funding
None.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare there is no conflict.
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Asian Journal of Water, Environment and Pollution, Electronic ISSN: 1875-8568 Print ISSN: 0972-9860, Published by AccScience Publishing
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