Drinking water investigation in rural areas of Guangdong Province in 2006.

Objective To know the drinking water quality in the rural areas of Guangdong Province.Methods Twenty-four counties were selected by the method of multivariate striated sampling according to the economic levels and geographical conditions,and then 10 villages were selected as the monitoring sites in each county according to the types of water source and water supply.The investigation and water surveillance were carried out in each county.Results 52.92% of the rural population were serviced by central water supply,47.08% were serviced by non-central water supply in Guangdong.The monitoring data showed that the eligible rate of water was only 36.4%,for the high disqualification rates of total coliform,pH value,and turbidity.The eligible rate of water quality for tap-water with complete treatment was 76.92%.72.98% of families had the sanitary toilets,85.05% of them were 3-compartment septic tank toilets.The sources of garbage included household origin(33.50%) and productive origin(33.26%).The disposal of domestic garbage was mainly to burn,burry,and stockpile.The disposal of industrial garbage was mainly to recycle directly,burn,and burry.The sources of sewage included household origin(60.07%),agricultural origin,industrial origin,breeding origin,and etc.Sewage disposal was mainly to drain to outside without any treatment,and only 9.55% was treated by sewage disposal plants.The significantly negative relationship(β=-0.504,P0.05) was found between the family numbers of sewage drainage and qualification rate of water,and significantly positive relationship(β=0.627,P0.01) was found between the numbers of sanitary toilets and qualification rate of water in 24 counties by the correlation analysis.Conclusion The hygienic condition of drinking water is still poor in the rural areas of Guangdong Province.