Quality and Safety of Rural Community Drinking Water Sources in Guto Gida District, Oromia, Ethiopia

Table 6

Overall mean values of physical characteristics of rural community drinking water samples from both unprotected and protected sources.

Physical	Water sample sources
Parameters	Unprotected well	Unprotected spring	Protected well	Protected spring	value
Temp (°C)	21.98 ± 1.32^a	21.77 ± 1.12^a	21.54 ± 1.2^a	21.13 ± 0.76^a	>0.05
pH	6.28 ± 0.25^b	6.71 ± 0.35^a	6.33 ± 0.2^b	6.12 ± 0.40^b	<0.01
EC (μS/cm)	445.63 ± 64.42^a	305.54 ± 73.1^b	352.54 ± 40.5^b	431.75 ± 69.32^a	<0.01
Turbidity (NTU)	4.23 ± 1.94^a	4.16 ± 0.95^a	3.76 ± 0.87^a	3.74 ± 0.90^a	>0.05
Color (Pt. Co)	13.13 ± 1.17^a	2.7.9 ± 1.33^a	10.67 ± 1.57^b	9.79 ± 1.88^b	<0.01
TDS (mg/L)	260.58 ± 47.17^a	186.79 ± 26.6^b	209.54 ± 19.8^b	248.08 ± 40.77^a	<0.01

Data are average of triplicates; SE: standard error; numbers indicated by the same letter superscripts within the same row do not vary significantly by Duncan’s multiple range test at , TDS: total dissolved solids; EC: electrical conductivity.