AccScience Publishing / AJWEP / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/AJWEP026120074
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ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

A retrospective assessment of rural drinking water quality and influencing factors in Weifang City, China

Haiyu Liu1*
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1 Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia
AJWEP, 026120074 https://doi.org/10.36922/AJWEP026120074
Received: 16 March 2026 | Revised: 14 April 2026 | Accepted: 17 April 2026 | Published online: 14 May 2026
© 2026 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

Access to safe drinking water remains a critical, yet unmet, public health priority in rural China. Weifang City, a major agricultural region, exemplifies this challenge, but evidence to guide targeted, context-specific interventions is lacking. We conducted a mixed-methods explanatory study in Weifang City from August 2024 to May 2025. A repeated cross-sectional survey of all 724 rural water supply projects was performed, involving 1,452 water samples collected quarterly from factory outlets and end-user taps. Water quality compliance was assessed against China’s national standard (GB 5749-2022). The overall water quality compliance rate was 81.47%. However, an estimated 560,300 rural residents (10.82% of the population served) were exposed to non-compliant water. Microbial contamination was the predominant failure mode (68.77% of non-compliant samples), followed by nitrate pollution (29.00%). Multivariable analysis identified the use of shallow well water as the factor most strongly associated with non-compliance (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 31.02; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 14.95–64.36), followed by absence of water treatment (AOR = 16.46; 95% CI: 6.55–41.36). Decentralized systems exhibited the highest failure rates, a risk fully mediated by poor source quality and lack of treatment. Centralized systems showed significant water quality deterioration between treatment plants and taps (93.40% vs. 79.44%), indicating pervasive secondary contamination. Rural drinking water safety in Weifang is compromised through two distinct, modifiable pathways: source and treatment deficiencies in decentralized systems, and secondary contamination in centralized distribution networks. This evidence provides a novel, mixed-methods, risk-based roadmap for transitioning from infrastructure coverage to equitable, sustainable, safe water access.

Graphical abstract
Keywords
Drinking water safety
Rural health
Water quality
Risk factors
China
Mixed-methods
Funding
None.
Conflict of interest
The author declares no competing interests.
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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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