Water profiling of drinking water filter in UTMSPACE towards its water quality

Abstract

The need for sustainable clean water supply, free of waterborne microbes and undesirable chemicals, especially for drinking water has become the top priority of most people. According to the World Health Organization (WHO, 2019), about 2 billion people, mostly live-in developing countries, uses contaminated water, originating from unprocessed surface resources like lakes, rivers, and ponds, for drinking purposes. In Malaysia, drinking water sources are mostly obtained from surface water and go through several water treatment plants prior to being released to the community. However, there are several drawbacks of filtered drinking water that are filtered using a drinking water filter. Improper maintenance of water filters such as replacing the membrane cartridge and cleaning the tubing of the water filter may affect the quality of the filtered drinking water in terms of biological oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), pH, conductivity, and bacteria growth. In this study, water profiling towards water quality has been done in 11 different stations in UTMSPACE, Skudai. The water samples of the filtered drinking water were collected and analyzed in terms of their chemical and biological analysis. This study aims to raise community awareness towards filter properties, and the importance of proper maintenance of the filter.