Consumption of water from ex-mining lake as an alternative for water shortage: A case study

Water scarcity is considered a long-term crisis that disrupts water resource availability, one of the environmental problems. This obstruction of water shortage has become the world's major issue, affecting 7.7 billion people and is further estimated to reach between 9.4 and 10.2 billion in 2050. Thus, this scenario has become more critical in many parts of countries throughout the world, which has decreased the standard of living and affected the daily activities of the population. Therefore, in line with Sustainable Development Goals, clean water and sanitation have been a key priority to be considered. Water bodies such as the surface water of ex-mining lakes can be an alternative for water intake to meet the demand for drinking water supply. Therefore, this paper aimed to assess the water quality of ex-mining lakes in Bandar Saujana Putra, Selangor, Malaysia, in terms of providing water intake for drinking water. Based on the analysis of the results, the water sample falls into Class II, which is clean, following the Water Quality Index (WQI) from the Department of Environment, Malaysia. However, for heavy metal determination such as cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), arsenic (As), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), and zinc (Zn), the result indicated the water body is unsuitable for drinking water intake as further treatment is required. After implementing the activated carbon filtration method, the water sample showed a significant reduction of the heavy metal concentration and, therefore, can be considered an alternative for water reservation.