Quality of Drinking Water from Springs in Palestine: West Bank as a Case Study

Table 1

Physiochemical characteristics of drinking water from licensed spring water in the West Bank compared with standard permission limits of the PSI and WHO.

Characteristics	Unit	Range of measured value	Mean value	Percentage above acceptable limit (%)	Permission limits according to
					PSI	WHO
Temperature	°C	18–27	23		NA	NA
Turbidity	NTU	0.05–9.9	1.57	25	Up to 5.0	Up to 5.0
Chloride content	mg/L	22.0–284	75.4	24	Up to 250	Up to 250
pH		7.08–8.19	7.55	24	6.5–8.5	6.5–8.5
Electrical conductivity (EC)	μScm^−1	473–1406	764	41	Up to 2000	Up to 2000
Nitrates	mg·NO3-N/L	0–106	30	21	Up to 10	Up to 10
Total hardness		199–485	344	10	500	NA
Residual chlorine		0–1.39	0.452	16	NA	NA
Total chlorine		0.01–1.69	0.519	18	NA	NA
Na^+ concentration	mg/L	16.9–137	40.9	15	NA	Up to 200