Health risk assessment of arsenic and lead contamination in drinking water: A study of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, Pakistan

The present research study explores the drinking water quality of Rawalpindi and Islamabad to identify the potent dissolved contaminants and carry out a health risk assessment as the study area houses more than 3 million people. A total of 95 drinking water samples were collected from the union councils of the selected study area and analyzed for 12 physicochemical water quality indicators. The collected datasets were interpreted using general statistics, principal component analysis and spatial analysis for knowing the variations among the collected samples. The results revealed that overall 51.57% of the drinking water samples were unsatisfactory for human consumption. The rate of physicochemical contamination was 87.27% in the rural and unauthorized housing societies. Arsenic (As) and lead (Pb) were the potent contaminants in the drinking water samples. The health risk assessment uncovered that 31.57 and 10.45% of samples had a hazard quotient (HQ) >1 for arsenic and lead, respectively. Collectively, 41 drinking water sources were identified as potential health risk sources for the residents. HIGHLIGHTS Planned sampling from 95 locations was carried out from in-use drinking water sources from the capital city Islamabad and Rawalpindi, Pakistan.; Assessment of health risks for arsenic and lead was carried out using the standard guidelines of USEPA.; The combination of spatial analysis with water quality indicators provides disseminated research findings to the general public along with scientific researchers.;