| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺北大學 === 資源管理研究所碩士在職專班 === 91 === Drinking Water Quality is one of important factors that influence people’s quality of life. To ensure public safety in drinking water, environmental authorities take random samples of tap water for water quality inspections every month. Over 1,000 random samples on average are tested every month, and the results are made public. According to the E.P.A’s announcement, the unqualified rates of tap water for the latest three years are 1.15%, 0.89%, and 0.33% respectively for Taiwan Area. In the opinion of public healthy safety tap water’s quality is undoubtedly well in Taiwan Area. However, the results of related survey for the public’s satisfactory degree of drinking water were not quite ideal. The potable contaminants in drinking water might be the main reasons for the lag between the environmental authorities’ announcement and the public’s satisfaction with drinking water quality. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to assessing the development of the reasonable potable drinking water quality index in Taiwan. By indexing the potable degrees of drinking water quality, so we can find out the differences of drinking water quality and the main contaminants for potable problem between different counties.
The Potable Water Quality Index (PWQI) is mainly based on the concept of Environmental Indicators (EI). The analysis methods used in the study also include: (1) data collection for related researches (2) drinking water quality standards in main countries or areas. (3) data from tap water quality inspections executed by environmental authorities (4) correlation analysis for substances affecting drinking (5) Analytic Hierarchy Process, AHP and (6) Questionnaire Survey. Through the analysis of indexing potable water quality in Taiwan, four items were selected as the Potable Water Quality Index’s sub-index items, including Residual Chlorine (weight: 0.340), Total Hardness (weight: 0.257), Total Dis-solved Solids (weight: 0.222), and Turbidity (weight: 0.181). PWQI values counted in five ranks are better than in three ranks. The results of our survey showed that the percentage of thinking five ranks more reasonable is 56.78%. While the percentage of thinking three ranks more reasonable is 40.68%. In addition, the analysis of empirical study for latest three years also showed that PWQI values counted in five ranks can find out the differences of drinking water quality between different counties. As to the selection of index function pattern, the analysis of empirical study for latest three years also showed that maximum function pattern is better than additive function. The former one can find out the main contaminants for potable problems between different counties, while the latter is seriously interfered by eclipsing effects.
The results of empirical study for Portable Water Index showed that the potable water quality for Taiwan Area was mostly in a moderate state (100< PWQI<=200). Of the four criteria contaminants used to calculate PWQI, Total Hardness and Residual Chlorine generally contribute to the PWQI value for the whole Taiwan Area. Total Dis-solved Solids is usually the highest contaminant measured in Penghu county, Kaohsiung county, and Kaohsiung city. Turbidity is more frequently the highest contaminant measured in Taoyuan county, Taichung county, and Taichung city. The analysis of the PWQI empirical study for Taiwan Area approximately fits in with the real state of drinking water quality.
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