Factors Affecting the Quality of Drinking Water in the United States of America: A Ten-Year Systematic Review

Kolade Olatunde^1, , Susan Kane Patton², Laura Cameron³, Tony Stankus³ and Plangkat James Milaham⁴

¹Department of Public Policy/Health Policy, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701, USA

²Department of Nursing, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701, USA

³Department, Library, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701, USA

⁴Department of Health, Human Performance and Recreation, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701, USA

Cite this paper

Kolade Olatunde, Susan Kane Patton, Laura Cameron, Tony Stankus and Plangkat James Milaham. Factors Affecting the Quality of Drinking Water in the United States of America: A Ten-Year Systematic Review. American Journal of Water Resources. 2022; 10(1):24-34. doi: 10.12691/AJWR-10-1-4

Abstract

Safe drinking water is a product that is free of contaminants which pose short and long-term risks to the consumers’ well-being. It is an indispensable resource that safeguards public health and engenders sustainable economic development. We conducted a systematic review of journal article published between 2010-2020 to (a) identify, appraise, and synthesize the best available evidence for the factors that affect the quality of drinking water in the United States of America (b) make appropriate recommendations to improve the quality of drinking water. Eligible studies were systematically reviewed and selected for analysis from searches of 21,042 publications identified from six databases. We analyzed factors affecting quality of ground water, surface water, water treatment plants, water distribution systems, tap water and bottled water. 201 studies were included in this review, and more than half were published between 2016-2020. The major water contaminant identified from this review was chemical waste from industries (33.3%), followed by pathogens (32.3%), metals and naturally occurring substances (23.9%), pharmaceuticals (9.0%), natural gas and oil (1.0%) and biogenic substance (0.5%). Therefore, factors affecting the quality of water include industrial activities, pathogens especially from fecal contamination of water, agricultural practices, naturally occurring substances, pharmaceutical substances, and natural disasters. There is need to enforce regulations that protect all sources of drinking water from pollution by industrial effluents and other anthropogenic sources. Improvements in water treatment processes and continuous water monitoring, especially in the rural areas, will help to improve the quality of drinking water in the United States. Systematic review registration: The systematic review protocol was registered (CRD42021271183) and is published on PROSPERO.

Keywords

factors, quality, safe drinking water, contaminants, pathogens

Copyright

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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