This document discusses various aspects of water quality including: - Water quality describes the suitability of water for drinking, bathing, irrigation, and supporting aquatic life based on physical, chemical, and biological characteristics. - Common water sources include surface water, groundwater, rainwater, and ice/snow. Water quality can be tested using field tests or lab tests and is regulated by standards from organizations like BIS and CPCB. - Poor water quality can impact health through water-borne diseases from microbiological contaminants or adverse effects from chemicals. Regular monitoring of sources and treatment of water is needed to ensure safe drinking water.

1. Water
Elixir of life
Universal solvent
Thirst Quencher

2. Some water tastes salty
Some water tastes sweet
Some water is brown in colour
Some water is green in colour
Some water makes you fall ill
Some water keeps you healthy
How we perceive water
All these defines the quality of water

3. What is meant by water quality?
Water quality describes the
degree to which water is
clean and is suitable for
● Drinking
● Bathing
● Irrigation
● Habitat for Aquatic life
● Other wildlife
It is the condition of water,
including physical, chemical,
and biological characteristics.
Not all water is suitable for all purposes

4. Hydrological Cycle
Water is not stagnant in one form at one
location. It circulates through the environment
from one form to another form, this mechanism
of water circulation from earth to atmosphere
and back to earth either by natural process or
through human intervention is called
hydrological Cycle

5. What are your water sources
Surface Water Ground Water
Ponds
Lakes
Open wells
Bore wells
Rain Water
Rainwater harvesting

6. What are your water sources
● Rain water
● Surface water
Rivers, lakes, ponds
● Groundwater
Wells, Borewells
● Springs
● Ice and snow

7. What is the safe water for drinking ? What makes you feel so
RO water Rain water Ground water

8. Panipuri stall and stomach
ache
Ground water and
stains on vessels
Clear water and turbid
water

9. Water quality Standards
Drinking water Standards
● Bureau of Indian Standards -BIS-10500
● Center for pollution control Board- CPCB
Surface water standards (Treated waste water discharged into lakes)
● KSPCB
Irrigation Water standards (Treated waste water used for irrigation)
● KSPCB

10. Water Quality standards : BIS-10500
Biological
● Fecal Coliform
● Total Coliform
Physical
● Colour
● Odour
● Turbidity
● Temperature
Chemical
● PH
● Alkalinity
● Hardness
● TDS (Total
dissolved solids)
● Nitrate
● Fluoride
● Chloride
● Iron
● Arsenic
● Residual Chlorine

11. Water quality and its health impacts
● Microbiological - Water Borne disease like diarrhea, typhoid, Cholera, Hepatitis A, etc.,
○ Bacteria
○ Virus
○ Protozoa
● Physical (Floating and suspended) - Impacts Colour, taste, temperature, odour, turbidity
○ Paper
○ Plastic
○ Organic(leaves/plants)
● Chemical - Can cause adverse effects to health and environment gastrointestinal illness, reproductive
problems, neurological disorders, etc.,
Natural (geogenic)
○Minerals from rocks (Fluorosis and High TDS)
○Below the ground earth process
Man made (Anthropogenic)
○ Agro Chemicals
○ Domestic sewage
○ Industrial chemicals

12. Health impacts

13. Simple tests to test your water quality at home
Tests by Observation
● Colour, Taste and odour
Taste, smell and observe water from different sources
● Presence of Iron in water more than permissible limits
Iron taste, Change in colour of clothes, utensils oily appearance, rance on the top of the water
body
● Presence of Hardness in water more than permissible limits
Soap will not lather in hard water
● Presence of Fluorides in water more than permissible limits
Brownish black streaks on teeth
● Presence of Alkalinity in water
Boiled rice turns yellowish
● Presence of Iron in water
Testing Iron in Water using Guava Leaves

14. Water Quality Testing
Field test Lab Testing

15. Domestic Treated Water From Bangalore
Lake before treated water
into lake
Lake after treated water into
lake
Well before treated water
into lake
Well after treated water into
lake

16. Connection between lake and groundwater
Improvement of Water level in wells around the Bettahalsuru lake receiving treated Water

17. Benefits of Treated water
● Improves Ground water level (Increases water level in open wells, bore
wells) and provides adequate water for Domestic and Agricultural needs.
● Improves local biodiversity
● Water is available in the lake throughout the year
Safe use of Treated Water:
● Avoid direct consumption of treated water from lakes for drinking purposes,
domestic use, irrigation and cattle drinking purposes.
● The Panchayat receiving treated water into the lakes should regularly
monitor the water quality of their lakes, bore wells, open wells.
● The MID and panchayats should plan to avoid flooding in the rainy season.
● Ask your Panchayat for water quality reports on a regular basis.
● Share your experience on benefits and Problems with the use of treated
water.

18. Check for Nitrates
Desirable Limit : 45 max
Permissible limit: No relaxation
Source of contamination: Runoff
from fertilizer, leaching from
septic tanks, Sewerage, erosion
of natural deposits
Health impacts:
Methemoglobinemia or Blue
baby syndrome

19. Solutions
Preventing pollution
● Not allowing any sewage or industrial effluents entering into the water sources
● Restrict solid waste dumping in and around water sources
● Do not inject any industrial waste into groundwater
Regularly monitoring
● Regular monitoring on waters sources quality, Ask your panchayat for water quality
reports
● Regularly cleaning water source premises for any solid waste dumping or entering of
swerege
● Make sure that the water tanks and pipes at your house are regularly cleaned and well
maintained
Source quality treatment solutions (open wells)
● Chlorination of Well
● Allowing waste water after secondary treatment or Tertiary treatment into lakes

20. Solutions
Point of use Solutions
● Covering water storage containers
● Avoid drinking Poor water Quality
● Boiling of water
● Filtering of water (RO, Candle filter + boiling, gravity filter)
● Share your water story to panchayat and water service providers like plumbers, well
diggers, sanitation workers

21. Water filtering solutions
Gravity-Fed Water Filter
Reuse of RO rejected
water
(Use RO Filter only where
necessary)
Use UV filter
where RO filters
are not required
Boiling of water
(to kill bacterias)

22. How to filter water - Simple solutions
Purify the water using any one of these methods
● Sand and charcoal filter
● Chlorination using chlorine tablets
● Moringa seeds
● Alum
● SODIS or any other method

23. Government Orders

24. Rain water- Which is Comparatively Good Quality of water
Rain water have very less
chance to get polluted
Harvest your rain
water, boil it and use it

25. Water quality parameters and standards
Appendix

26. Impacts of Water contamination
Due to water contamination though we can see lot of water around us yet it is not
useful for human needs
● Destruction of biodiversity.
● Contamination of the food chain.
● Lack of potable water.
● Health Risks

27. Water quality Parameters, type of contaminants and health impact - 1/2
Parameter
Standards lS: 10500 - 2012
Health impacts
Desirable Limits Permissible limit
Colour,Hazen Unit 3.0 5.0 Max -
Turbidity/ transparency (For Surface Water) 1.0 Max 5.0 Max -
pH 6.5-8.5 No relaxation
Bitter taste, corrosion, affects
mucous
Dissolved Oxygen (DO) (For Surface Water) 5 Max No relaxation -
Total Hardness mg/l 200 Max 600 Max
Kidney stones and early onset of
bone decay
Total Dissolved Solids mg/l 500 2000
Gastrointestinal irritations,
undesirable taste
Total Alkalinity mg/l 200 Max 600 Max
gastrointestinal issues and
skin irritations and condition of
Metabolic alkalosis

28. Water quality Parameters, type of contaminants and health impact - 1/2
Parameter
Standards lS: 10500 - 2012
Health impacts
Desirable Limits Permissible limit
Chloride mg/l 250 Max 1000 Max
Nitrate mg/l 45 Max No relaxation
Methemoglobinemia or Blue
baby syndrome
Fluoride mg/l 1.0 Max 1.5 Max
Fluorosis-Dental, Skeletal and
non Skeletal
Total Iron mg/l 0.3 Max No relaxation
Low iron level can lead to
Anemia and more iron beyond
Desirable Limit & Permissible
limit can cause digestive issues
Fecal coliform, MPN / 100ml 0 0
Typhoid fever, hepatitis,
gastroenteritis, dysentery and
ear infections
Residual Chlorine* (For Municipal Water) 0.2 Max 1 Max diarrheal disease

29. List of parameters to monitor
Drinking Water:
Colour, Odor, temperature, PH, Total Hardness, Total Alkalinity, Chloride, Nitrate,
Fluoride, Phosphate, Total Iron, Fecal Coliform
Agriculture water
Salinity, ions (sodium, chloride, or boron), carbonates and bicorbonates
Treated water
pH, BOD, COD, TSS, Ammoniacal Nitrogen, Total Nitrogen, Fecal Coliform
Surface water
pH, BOD, DO, TDS, TSS, Secchi Disk, Chlorophyll a, Nitrates, Phosphates, Total Coliform
Bacteria, Free Ammonia

30. Colour
Permissible limit & Desirable Limit : 3.0 & 5.0 Hazen units
Source of contamination: Presence of silt, soil runoff, waste deposition
Health impacts: no particular health effects

31. Turbidity/ Transparency
Desirable Limit & Permissible limit: 1.0 Max and 5.0 Max
Source of contamination: Soil runoff
Health impacts: Higher turbidity levels are often associated with higher levels of disease
causing microorganisms such as viruses, parasites and some bacteria. These organisms
can cause symptoms such as nausea, cramps, diarrhea and associated headaches

32. pH
Desirable Limit & Permissible limit: 6.5-8.5 & No Relaxation
Source of contamination:
Health impacts: Bitter taste, corrosion, affects mucous membrane

33. Total Hardness
Desirable Limit & Permissible limit: 200 mg/l & 600 mg/l
Source of contamination: Erosion of natural deposits
Health impacts: Scale forming, skin irritations

34. Total Dissolved Solids
Desirable Limit & Permissible limit:
500 and 2000 mg/l
Source of contamination: Dissolved
solids originate from natural sources,
sewage, industrial wastewater and
chemicals used in water treatment.
Health impacts: Gastrointestinal
irritations, undesirable taste

35. Nitrate
Desirable Limit & Permissible
limit: 45 max and no relaxation
Source of contamination: Runoff
from fertilizer, leaching from
septic tanks, Sewerage, erosion
of natural deposits
Health impacts:
Methemoglobinemia or Blue
baby syndrome

36. Flouride
Desirable Limit & Permissible limit
Source of contamination: Erosion of
natural deposits, discharge from
fertilizers and aluminium factories
Health impacts: Fluorosis-Dental,
Skeletal and non Skeletal and Childern
may get molted teeth

37. Fecal Coliform
Desirable Limit & Permissible limit: 0 MPN/ 100 ml
Source of contamination: Coliforms are naturally available in the environment as well as
faces; Fecal coliforms only come from human and animal fecal waste, Open defecation,
Sewage, Organic waste dumping, leaking sewage pipes.
Health impacts: Pathogens cause diseases like Cholera, Typhoid, Jaundice, Hepatitis,
Diarreia

38. Residual Chlorine
Desirable Limit & Permissible limit
Source of contamination
Health impacts

39. Dissolved Oxygen
Desirable Limit & Permissible limit : 5.0 Max & No relaxation
Source of contamination: Industrial waste water (such as food processing, distillery,
paperandpulp, brewery, sugar, petrochemical,iron and steel manufacturing) and
domestic sewage.
Health impacts:

40. Total Alkalinity
Desirable Limit & Permissible limit : 200 mg/l to 600 mg/l
Source of contamination:
Health impacts:

41. Total Iron
Desirable Limit & Permissible limit
Source of contamination:
Health impacts

42. Chloride
Desirable Limit & Permissible limit
Source of contamination
Health impacts

43. Field activities for Children
1. Where do you get your water from ?
2. How much water do you use daily?
3. How do you know your water is safe ? Simple tests to test your water quality at home
4. Water quality testing with kit
5. How to filter water - Simple solutions

44. Connection between water quality and health
Poor water quality is linked to high health risks and can lead to adverse health effects, including
gastrointestinal illness, reproductive problems, and neurological disorders. Infants, young
children, pregnant women, the elderly, and people whose immune systems are compromised.
Access to good quality of water is very important for day to day activities.

45. What is water contamination
Water resources get contaminated with some human activities use of water for different
purpose, in some instance natural process of ecosystem and also because of wastes
disposed in air and land that finally finds its way into waterways. These wastes affect the
quality of rainwater, surface water and groundwater leading to contamination of natural
ecosystem

46. Government Orders