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Assessment of supplied water quality during mass gatherings in arid environments.
Othman, Abdullah; Ahmed, Omar B; Abotalib, Abotalib Z; Sayqal, Ali; Assaggaf, Hamza; Zeb, Jahan.
  • Othman A; Department of Environmental Engineering, Umm Al-Qura University, Saudi Arabia.
  • Ahmed OB; Department of Environmental and Health Research, Umm Al-Qura University, Saudi Arabia.
  • Abotalib AZ; Division of Geological Applications and Mineral Resources, National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences, Cairo, Egypt.
  • Sayqal A; Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
  • Assaggaf H; Department of Chemistry, Umm Al-Qura University, Saudi Arabia.
  • Zeb J; Department of Laboratory Medicine, Umm Al-Qura University, Saudi Arabia.
J King Saud Univ Sci ; 34(4): 101918, 2022 Jun.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1702735
ABSTRACT
Mass gathering events commonly encounter environmental challenges that necessitate assurance of water quality and food security. The current outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) call for maintaining safe drinking water supply and providing assessment tools of drinking water quality to avoid contamination in water sources or distribution networks. Arid environmental conditions also add more stress on supplied water to mass gathering events. Herein, we assess the quality of the water supply (desalinated 95% and groundwater 5%) in Makkah city, Saudi Arabia during a mass gathering event in 2019 (9.6 million people) for religious purposes. Fifty five samples were randomly collected from nine different districts of Makkah city, analyzed for TDS, turbidity, pH, EC, free Cl2, Al, Cd, Pb, Cr, F, major ions, coliform and E.coli bacteria and were finally used to estimate the water quality index (WQI). Major ions, trace elements and heavy metals analyses show values below permissible limits in most of the samples, while a few samples show slightly higher values. No bacterial count found in any sample. WQI values of all fifty-five samples were below 50 and were identified as "excellent water". The WQI variations could be attributed to the distribution network conditions rather than a direct impact of adding groundwater with uncontrolled chemical composition. The use of WQI to report the quality of water during mass gathering events to governmental authorities has been proved to be beneficial and should be applied for further mass gathering events worldwide.
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Full text: Available Collection: International databases Database: MEDLINE Type of study: Experimental Studies / Randomized controlled trials Language: English Journal: J King Saud Univ Sci Year: 2022 Document Type: Article Affiliation country: J.jksus.2022.101918

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Full text: Available Collection: International databases Database: MEDLINE Type of study: Experimental Studies / Randomized controlled trials Language: English Journal: J King Saud Univ Sci Year: 2022 Document Type: Article Affiliation country: J.jksus.2022.101918