Assessment of Water Quality for Drinking and Agricultural Usages in Klong Namdang Community, Bangkok, Thailand

Abstract

Klong Namdang is one of the important canals in Bangkok of Thailand used as agricultural area and local lifestyle since time immemorial. Nowadays, factories are increasing around the canal that may affect to environment and human health. The objectives of this research were to study quality of consumed and canal water then assess suitability for consumption and agriculture. Therefore, this work focused on determination of physical, biological and chemical qualities of 21 drinking water samples, namely tap water, rainwater and bottled drinking water from 21 households, and 6 canal water samples from Klong Namdang community. It was found that total coliform bacteria of 27% of tap water, 100% of rainwater and bottled drinking water were out of standard quality of drinking water with <3-2,400, 347.50+434.38 and 1,204.50+1,690.69 most probable number/100 ml, respectively. There were very strong correlations among electrical conductivity, hardness, calcium, magnesium, and sodium in drinking water with probability value <0.001. However, chemical qualities of canal water comprising magnesium, sodium, potassium, and manganese were out of standard of quality for agricultural water. Moreover, a correlation between total coliform bacteria and fecal coliform bacteria in the canal water was found with correlation coefficient of 0.9971 at probability value <0.001. Besides, water quality index of the canal was 53.83+2.86 meaning that it was type 4 surface water and may not be suitable for agriculture.