Zahoor Ullah, Tasleem Akhtar, Salar Zai.
Quality of drinking water in rural Peshawar.
Pak J Med Res Jan ;42(3):85-9.

Dug or bore wells inside the compounds of small houses in rural areas in NWFP, still serve as the major source of drinking water, which are prone to pollution from various humanly activities. Nature of soil, surrounding environment and structure of well also play a role in their pollution. Four villages near Provincial Health Services Academy (PHSA), Peshawar known for high prevalence of water born diseases, were selected for rapid assessment through a small scale survey to find out the bacteriological quality of drinking water, practice of water storage / use & routes of contamination in these localities. 13% wells water at source has been found as safe, 40% as satisfactory while 47% as highly polluted. 9% of the initially clean at source samples were found as grossly contaminated after storage. Majority of drinking water samples from the locality, exhibited microbial count (coliform) significantly higher than the allowable limit on extended scale of WHO for the developing countries. Depth of the source and improper way of obtaining water from storage seems to be the most probable causes of contamination.

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