The Health Aspects of Urmia County Drinking Water Quality

Quality of drinking water has considerable effects on citizens’ health and its comparison with available standards and knowledge about permissible limits could provide useful information regarding community health. In the present study, the condition of quality of drinking water of Urmia County has been assessed and analyzed. Analysis results of drinking water of Urmia city and its villages were composed of 182 available analyses during 2012 and 2013 and were collected from Province Health Center. They were statistically analyzed for general parameters using SPSS and compared with national standard. Hardness of drinking water in Urmia County varied from 100 to 1040 mg/L as calcium carbonate with an average of 309 ± 144 mg/L which indicates a range of soft to very hard water. Dissolved solids were 103 to 1900 mg/L with an average of 366 ± 287 mg/L. Regarding fluoride which is important in health, concentration range varied from zero to 1.5 mg/L with an average of 0.21 ± 0.23 mg/L. Turbidity was less than 0.5 NTU in 44% of analyzed samples, between 0.5 to 1 NTU in 34% and higher than 1 NTU in 22% of samples, respectively. In comparison with national and international standards for drinking water quality, in some parts of Urmia County, the values for some quality parameters were not in accordance with permissible level and this requires corrective action. However, in general, physicochemical quality of studied waters was suitable for drinking purposes.