Water quality characteristics

Water quality is relative and is defined as the characteristics of a water that influences its suitability for a specific use. Quality is defined in terms of physical, chemical and biological characteristics.

Water quality cannot be monitored without adequate laboratory facilities. Some laboratory work is routinely performed at the water treatment plant.

Normally sophisticated Health Authority’s approved laboratory, be it private or part of the community administration, must be available to the public health engineer and water manager so that physical, chemical, microbiological and radionuclide parameters can be analyzed routinely.

The various chemicals dissolved in the water, as well as the temperature and other physical attributes of water, all combine to form what is called water quality. Water is one of the few materials that is liquid at ambient temperatures; the only others are elemental mercury and some hydrocarbons. This surface tension strongly limits diffusion of gases into and out of the water. Water has a high specific heat, which makes it resistant to change in temperature.

In certain dimension (e.g., visible phenomena such as the extent of algal growth; the clearness of the water and the existence of suds, foam or debris and smells such as hydrogen sulfide from anaerobic conditions), people at large found it easy to perceive changes in water quality.

Water quality characteristics