Occurrence and distribution of manganese in drinking water inIndia and implications for population health: preliminary results (2023)

Undergraduate: Joyce Liu

Faculty Advisor: Michael Fisher
Department: Environmental Sciences and Engineering

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As part of a larger systematic review, meta-analysis methods were applied to analyze occurrence and distribution of manganese contamination levels in drinking water, using studies focused in India. Manganese in drinking water sources is found to be exceedingly high in India, based on 146 observations from both improved sources, such as boreholes and rainwater, and unimproved sources, such as surface water and unprotected wells, as well as both aggregated (63 observations) and disaggregated data (83 observations). Across the 18 districts (14 states), the overall mean manganese concentration was 163.6 micrograms of manganese per liter, the median was 50.77 µg/L, the standard deviation was 314.4 µg/L, and the measurements fell between 0.0 µg/L and 2733.7 µg/L. Concentrations across the monsoon season were not significantly different, based on an ANOVA test (F = 1.61, p = 0.19); this is likely explained because manganese is a geogenic trace metal. Across source types, surface water, boreholes, and unprotected/unspecified wells were significantly associated with manganese concentrations (p < 0.002); boreholes and other types of wells are susceptible to higher concentrations, since groundwater is more susceptible to geological contamination. Across all aggregated and disaggregated observations, 41% were found to exceed the WHO guideline of 80 µg/L and 51% exceed the EPA guideline of 50 µg/L, which could indicate a potential health concern in large portions of India’s population.

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