Risk assessment of water supply system in Babylon Governorat : a stochastic approach

Abstract EN

The present study was conducted to evaluate the risk of water supply system in Babylon Governorate from the intake through to the consumer's tap.

Water failure may occur at any components of water supply system.

Therefore, risk was calculated for exposure to contaminants in raw, treated, and distributed tap water.

The risk assessment process was concerned on chemical and microbial contaminants in water.

The hazard index (HI) was calculated for noncarcinogenic chemicals (Hg, Cd, Cu, Zn, NO3, and Cl(free)) in water , while the risk was calculated for carcinogenic chemicals (Pb, As, and Cr) and microbial contaminant represented E.coli.

Both of hazard index and risk were conducted for raw, treated, and distributed tap water and the results were compared with the EPA limitations in order to show the potential health risks of these chemicals to local primary users of water from water supply system.

In this study the statistical models which are described the relations between the water quality parameters and human health were established, the statistical analysis results revealed significant correlation between the number of infections of cholera, diarrhea, typhoid and hepatitis disease with water quality parameters of raw, treated , and distributed tap water.