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You can test your home’s water quality by purchasing a home water testing kit or hiring a certified laboratory to analyze a sample of your water. The SDWA helps to protect public health by ensuring that drinking water is safe and free from harmful contaminants. It sets standards for contaminants in drinking water and requires water systems to monitor and treat their water to meet these standards.

The World Bank report2 explored global water quality and its evolution for a 19-year period (1992 to 2010). Concerns of contamination by nitrate and bacteria in surface water and groundwater due to poor sanitation and untreated or insufficiently treated wastewater, effluents from industrial and agricultural activities, and eutrophication in lakes or reservoirs are well documented18,19. Most industries in Sri Lanka largely depend on deep wells where groundwater is safe and of sufficient good quality14. Most rural people in Sri Lanka heavily depend on dug and hand-operated tubewells since groundwater is perceived to be the safest drinking water source which can be self-managed13.

Only 3% of the world’s water is suitable for drinking. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. Policymakers should use these findings to guide investments in water infrastructure and to ensure equitable access to clean water, particularly in rural areas. Climate change will intensify the variability in freshwater supplies in future as projections indicate an increase in the frequency of high and extreme rainfall events with a net increase in annual rainfall65enhancing agricultural drought in Sri Lanka23. However, ~ 15% of Sri Lanka’s population is unable to access a safe water source within 200 m of their residence5.

OOB evaluation treats the training dataset as if it were on the test dataset of a cross-validation. Missing data gaps vary substantially from as little as 4% (hardness) to as high as 71% (phosphate). To compare the results from interpolated grids, we apply the same hazard index calculation method as described above but for point observations. Many of these parameters are correlated and tend to cluster together into distinct groups (see Fig. S4). This involves ten parameters such as concentrations of Chloride (Cl), Alkalinity, Nitrate (NO3), Nitrite (NO2), Fluoride (F), Phosphate (PO4), TDS, Hardness, Iron (Fe), and Sulphate (SO4). Therefore, these wells are not regularly monitored and are not suitable for time-series analysis.

These technologies can provide more comprehensive and cost-effective monitoring than traditional methods. Warmer water temperatures also promote algal blooms and the spread of waterborne diseases. They pose a significant threat to aquatic ecosystems and human health.

Strategies are planned by the government for extending water supply services beyond urban areas. Other districts (Puttalam, Batticaloa, Kilinochchi, Jaffna, Mullaitivu, Mannar) with high hazard index are also located in the dry and intermediate climate zones. To align the vision with SDGs, the Government of Sri Lanka is fully committed to providing safe drinking water and improved sanitation to all its citizens5, for example, through piped water-supply provision. Sri Lanka has made good progress in terms of access to safe drinking water over the last few decades4. The natural variability in water nutrients (Na, Ca, Mg) in groundwater along with high fluoride levels is an important factor for increased occurrence of kidney diseases62.

Greywater recycling involves reusing relatively clean wastewater from showers, sinks, and washing machines for non-potable purposes such as irrigation and toilet flushing. Establishing water markets and payments for ecosystem services schemes can also incentivize conservation. Solutions include implementing best management practices, reducing fertilizer and pesticide use, promoting cover cropping, improving irrigation efficiency, and managing animal waste effectively.

What are some effective strategies for managing industrial wastewater? Individuals can reduce their impact by using less water, conserving energy, properly disposing of household chemicals, reducing fertilizer use on lawns, and supporting sustainable agricultural practices. Examples include rain gardens, green roofs, permeable pavements, and urban forests.

A variable number of groundwater samples was selected for each district (Supplementary Information). Groundwater multi-parameter hazard index maps are useful tools for visualization of composite hazards and their geospatial variability28. Developed in the 1960s, the WQI has gained global popularity for evaluating both surface and groundwater based on local criteria due to its simplicity and versatility.

They employ a series of physical, biological, and chemical processes to remove pollutants from domestic and industrial wastewater before it is discharged back into the environment. The explanation at this level incorporates a broader range of influencing factors, such as land use patterns, climate variability, and socioeconomic considerations. Moving beyond the foundational understanding, an intermediate exploration of Water Quality Improvement necessitates a deeper examination of methodologies and complexities.

Discussions focused on transparency around water testing procedures, the use of chlorine in treatment, and upcoming capital projects to modernize the system and reduce water loss. Non-point source pollution is more diffuse and challenging to control, originating from various sources such as agriculture, urban runoff, and atmospheric deposition. We must define what “better” truly means based on scientific data, regulatory standards, and community needs. How can individuals reduce their contribution to water pollution?

Chemical parameters include pH, Chloride (Cl), Total Alkalinity (TA), Nitrate (NO3), Nitrite (NO2), Fluoride (F), Phosphate (PO4), Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Total Hardness (TH), Iron (Fe), and Sulphate (SO4). The physical parameters are well depth, color, turbidity, water levels, and yield of wells. These wells are mostly water-supply wells that were installed by the NWSDB over a long period of time. These parameters include pH, Electrical Conductivity (EC), turbidity, temperature, dissolved oxygen (DO), COD, Biological or Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chloride, chromium (Cr), lead (Pb), nitrogen (NO3), phosphorous (PO4), Total coliform (T. coli) and Fecal coliform (F. coli) bacteria.

Clarification is required on the epistemological underpinnings of different water quality paradigms, moving beyond solely anthropocentric views. In essence, effective water quality improvement at this level demands a holistic, integrated, and adaptive management framework. The significance of water quality improvement is matched by the challenges in its implementation. Implementing Innovative Hydration Technology is essential for reducing agricultural runoff and improving water quality.

Nearly 93% of all drinking water supply in Sri Lanka comes from improved sources such as tubewells. There are more ways you can get involved, including raising awareness about potential threats to your drinking water, local rivers, lakes, streams, wetlands, the fish and shellfish you eat, and aquatic ecosystems. Participate in volunteer activities such as monitoring programs to help track the condition of your local rivers, streams, lakes, and other waters. We encourage you to take an active role in protecting the water resources in your community. Examples of successful water treatment projects include Singapore’s NEWater program and Copenhagen’s green infrastructure approach to stormwater management. The main causes of water pollution include industrial activities, agricultural runoff, domestic wastewater, and improper waste disposal.

For example, Mahagamage and Manage17reported poor water quality in the Kelani River basin that supplies 80% drinking water to the capital city, Colombo hosting more than a quarter of the nation’s entire population. Water quality in surface water and groundwater varies regionally and locally across Sri Lanka16. In many areas, groundwater provides industrial and commercial water supplies where surface water sources are not fully reliable. Interestingly, groundwater coverage (40%) has not increased substantially over the same period10 suggesting that the increased piped water primarily comes from surface water sources. Applying geospatial mapping techniques, we developed a multi-parameter (i.e., chloride, alkalinity, nitrate, nitrite, fluoride, phosphate, total dissolved solids, hardness, iron, and sulphate) groundwater-quality hazard map of Sri Lanka. Despite this national achievement, deteriorating water quality remains a major challenge to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 6 (‘Clean Water and Sanitation’).

In this study, we developed a groundwater multi-hazard index using various physiochemical parameters at the district level. Groundwater quality is generally controlled by geology, water-rock interactions in the aquifer, agricultural and other land-use practices, climate change influences recharge rates through rainfall variability, and sea level rise. Surface water quality is affected by industrial effluents, agrochemicals, waste disposal and treatments and other land-use practices. Other health related outcomes linked to chemical constituents in drinking water include methemoglobinemia in children and stomach cancer in adults for exposure to very high concentrations of nitrate and nitrite57.