Perception Versus Actual Value of Quality of Drinking Water: A Case Study of Iron and Steel Industry in West Bengal, India

The study aims to understand employees’ knowledge, awareness, and overall perception of drinking water quality in the Iron and Steel Industry in Burnpur, India. Further, this study evaluated drinking water’s physicochemical and bacteriological properties collected from different company sites. This study uses a mixed-method approach with individual interviews of selected employees (n=342) and the laboratory test of eight selected drinking water sites. The results show that most employees considered drinking water acceptable to be excellent. However, only 30% of employees in Site 1 (Coke Oven By-Product department) have reported organoleptic properties of water under the excellent category. The result explained that other physicochemical and bacteriological properties are in good status in all sites except for a colony count, expressing their suitability for drinking purposes. In summary, employees’ perception of water quality aligns with their drinking water’s physicochemical and bacteriological properties.


INTRODUCTION
Water, the elixir of organisms, is a precious natural resource for human life. Clean and adequate quantities of drinking water are recognized as fundamental to human dignity (United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights 2019). However, industrial pollution contributes to deteriorating drinking water quality within and outside the industry (Dogaru et al. 2009, Singh et al. 2018. Different forms of industrial pollutants affect drinking water quality, and it's responsible for many morbidities and mortalities due to water-borne diseases . Rakhecha 2020. According to the World Health Organization (2019), nearly 2 billion people use the source of drinkable water contaminated with feces. However, India ranks 120 th out of 122 countries on the water quality index, and about 70% of India's water supply is likely contaminated. (NITI Aayog 2018). Therefore, it is essential to monitor the drinking water quality, specifically in the industrial sector in India.
In the Iron and Steel Industry, primarily polluted operations are the preparation of raw materials, manufacturing of coke in coke ovens, sintering, and drilling operations, steel-making furnaces, recovery of chemicals from benzol and tar products, and wind erosion from overburden (OB) dumps, etc. (Nurul et al. 2016, Tiwari et al. 2016. These all-industrial operations, directly and indirectly, damage the physicochemical and bacteriological properties of the quality of drinking water. In India, several studies examined drinking water's physicochemical and bacteriological quality. Many found that water sources nearby the industry were contaminated with pollution indicators such as fecal and total coliforms and unfit for drinking purposes (Srinivas et al. 2013, Sukumaran et al. 2015, Dhawde et al. 2018, Singh et al. 2018). However, a laboratory test of the water is a scientific process to assess the drinking water quality. However, people's perceptions and experience with water quality (i.e., taste, smell, color, appearance, and satisfaction level) are also crucial to identifying water quality (Doria et al. 2009, Eck et al. 2020, Grupper et al. 2021. Whereas chemical contamination in the drinking water may cause numerous health problems among people (Nikaeen et al. 2016). Furthermore, flavor is considered the most relevant variable and more adequately explains consumption than perceived water quality (Doria et al. 2009). Also, changes in perception are related to individual decisions influenced by various socio-demographic, economic, and other factors (Abedin et al. 2014, Eck et al. 2020. In this context, Khalid et al. (2018) found in their study that young respondents (10-30 age group) were more concerned about their drinking water quality as compared with older (51-70 age group) people.
However, the nature and virtue of drinking water standards may vary across countries and regions (WHO, 2017). No single approach is universally applicable to measure the quality of drinking water. It is possible to assess drinking water quality using different physical, chemical, and bacteriological parameters (Nikaeen et al. 2016& Dhawde et al. 2018). These parameters are; pH value, Total Solids (TS), Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Total Suspended Solids (TSS), and chemical parameters like total alkalinity, dissolved oxygen (DO), total hardness, calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), chlorinate, salinity and bacterial parameters like standard plate count (SPC), total coliform count (TCC), fecal coliform count (FCC) and fecal streptococcal count (FSC) (Krishnan et al. 2007). For this reason, it is important to find out ' 'employees' perceptions and drinking water quality in the Iron and Steel Industry in Burnpur, West Bengal.
The present study briefly overviews drinking water quality in selected sites of the Indian Iron and Steel Industry, Burnpur, India. Previously, many studies have assessed water quality in the nearby industry; however, as per the author's knowledge, no such studies examined the drinking water quality of different sites within the Iron and Steel Industry. Also, this is the first-ever study that matched the employee's perception of drinking water quality with the actual quality by laboratory test. The objective of this research was twofold; first, we assess the employee's knowledge, awareness, and overall perception regarding the water quality in the selected site in the Iron and Steel Industry. Secondly, we evaluated the physicochemical and bacteriological properties of water by laboratory test results of selected sites in the industry. Based on these two objectives, we formulated our research questions: i.e. are there any differences between people's perception of drinking water quality and the actual tested value of the same water?

Study Area
A cross-section study was conducted from November

Research Design
This study is based on a mixed-method approach with individual interviews of selected employees

Research Design
This study is based on a mixed-method approach with individual interviews of selected employees and the laboratory test (physicochemical and bacteriological parameters) of eight selected drinking water sites.

Questionnaire-Based Individual Survey
An individual survey and sampling campaigns were conducted from November 2019 to March 2020. The survey was conducted on (n=342) Iron and Steel Industry employees. The individual survey was designed to elicit peoples' perceptions of drinking water quality at the selected industry sites. Study participants were selected from eight different departments in the industry. Subsequently, we selected water samples from the same departments. The selected participants were proportionally allocated to selected departments and employees using a systematic random sampling method.

Scale Development Process
The overall perception of the drinking water quality scale was developed to determine the water quality awareness level among the employees who participated in the research. In the development of this scale, the following phases were included: (a) the formation of scale items, (b) the content validity study, (c) the construct validity study, (e) and the ' 'Cronbach's alpha internal consistency reliability.

Reliability of Data
The scale's reliability was 0.9313 ' 'Cronbach's alpha, which indicates the reliability of consistency of the questionnaire data in the study. Our questions were based on the organoleptic properties of water, such as clarity, color, smell, taste, and healthiness. Many previous studies also used a similar scale to identify the water quality (Abdi-Soojeede & Kullane 2019, Grupper et al. 2021).

Laboratory Analysis
Water sample collection: A total of eight water samples were collected from the selected sites (n=8) of the Iron and Steel Industry, Burnpur. Out of that, six samples are tap water (Site 1 to Site 6), and the other two samples are tank water (Site 7) and reverse osmosis (R.O.) water (Site 8). All these waters were used only for drinking purposes. Water samples from each sampling site were aseptically collected in sterile glass bottles (500 ml) and plastic containers (1 liter). These bottles were rinsed with deionized water, followed by washing (thrice) before filling them. Further, water samples were labeled with the department name and number and transported to the laboratory in the icebox for the physicochemical and bacteriological tests. The water samples were tested with a holding time of 6-8 hours with the selected parameters using the Bureau of Indian Standards (Bureau of Indian Standards 2012).

Selection of sampling points:
The primary survey found that water sources are the same in the industry. However, the level of pollution changes by the different departments. Based on these observations, we identified eight major highly polluted departments and collected the water from the same sites. The details of the sample and water selection points are mentioned in (Fig. 2).

Physicochemical and bacteriological analysis:
Standard procedures were followed to analyze the physicochemical and bacteriological parameters (APHA 1998, BIS 2012. The parameters such as turbidity, total dissolved solids (TDS), pH-value, total residual chlorine, ammoniacal nitrogen, chloride, total hardness, and total alkalinity were measured in the physicochemical. Whereas bacteriological parameters such as; total colony count, number of coli-aerogenes organisms, fecal bacilli, and odor parameters were analyzed for the study.

Data Analysis
The study area map was prepared using ArcGIS 10.3.1 and Google Earth Pro (Desktop version). The mean value and standard deviation (SD) were calculated for all physicochemical parameters to determine the significant difference between the water sample sites. All statistical analysis was carried out using STATA-Version 14 software.

Ethical Clearance
Ethical authorization was obtained from the student research ethics committee of the International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, India. Employees who agreed to participate and consented to the same were included in the study.

Socio-demographic and Behavioral Characteristics of the Respondents
All the selected participants agreed to respond to the survey;   87% of employees had more than >10 years. Moreover, the proportion of exposed group employees is about twothirds (63.17%) of the total employees, and the remaining is intermittently exposed. As per the designation of employees, 29.53 % came under the operator cum technician or attended cum technician, and 24.85% of employees belong to the labor category (Table 1).
Respondent's knowledge and awareness about drinking water quality at the workplace are explained in (Fig. 3). More than 90% of employees from each level believed that poor water quality affects health. Similarly, in questions about water safety, 88.7% of employees under the manager/ supervisor skills responded that workplace water is safer to drink. On the contrary, more than 40% of employees from laborers (45.7%) and repair employees (40.9%) responded that workplace water is unsafe to drink. Results regarding employees' perception showed that 90.7% of the manager/ supervisor group perceived that industrial pollution affects the drinking water quality at the workplace. However,

Quality of Water can Affect the Health Workplace Water Safer to Drink Industrial Pollution Affect the Water Quality
Note: OCT/ACT: Operator-cum-Technician/Attended-cum-Technician  This publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License more than 51.5% of laborer employees and 55.3% of repair employees perceived that industrial pollution couldn't affect water quality (Fig. 3).
Based on the five organoleptic properties of water, we made the overall quality of the drinking water scale. The ' 'Cronbach's Alpha coefficient of 0.93 in the reliability analysis is perceived as proof of scale reliability. The overall perception of drinking water quality access on a 3-point scale; excellent, acceptable, and poor. More than 80% of employees from Rod mill (82.22), SMS (80.00), and DMP (84.62) considered water under the excellent category. In contrast, 38.64% of Coke Oven by Product department employees believed that water is poor quality and not fit for a drink. Out of the total employees, only 18.42% are considered the water under the poor category (Table 2).
Further questions were asked about the level of satisfaction with drinking water. The result shows that about 35% of employees from coke ovens by the product department expressed dissatisfaction with drinking water quality. By contrast, 46.67% of employees from SMS are highly satisfied with water quality. More than 50% of employees from each department expressed high satisfaction/ satisfaction with the quality aspect (Fig. 4).

Physicochemical Parameters
The results show that the value of total dissolved solids (TDS) in all sampling sites did not exceed an acceptable level (500 mg.L -1 ) prescribed by the BIS (2012). The mean concentration of TDS was in the range of 264-312 mg.L -1 , with the lowest record from site 1 and site 5 (264 mg.L -1 , each), and the highest value was recorded from site 6 (312 mg.L -1 ), respectively. In the industrial site, the level of pH value varies between 6.72 and 7.64, which is highest at site 7 (7.64 mg.L -1 ). In terms of total residual chlorine, we found Site 4 has the highest (0.7 mg/l) concentration, which is above BIS (2012) recommended (0.2 mg.L -1 ), whereas the lowest value was found at Site 6 (0.01 mg/l). Similarly, the mean value and SD of ammoniacal nitrogen, chloride, and total hardness in all sites were (0.05, 0.02 mg.L -1 ), (33.5, 3.0 mg.L -1 ), and (118.0, 8.8 mg/l), respectively. The total alkalinity values of all the drinking water samples are below the maximum limit (200 mg.L -1 ). Similarly, we found that turbidity (0.30) was very low at each site of selected drinking water. Overall physicochemical parameters result indicating water quality at all the selected sites was good and satisfactory (Table 3).

Bacteriological Parameters
The coliform group of bacteria is the key indicator of the fitness of water for drinking purposes. In an ideal situation, all the samples taken from the sample site should be free from coliform organisms. However, the colony count (CFU/ ml) ranged between 12 CFU/ml to 20 CFU/ml, showing the presence of bacteria unsuitable for drinking. However, coli-aerogenes organisms and fecal bacilli were present only at Site 6, indicating that other remaining sites are free from the coli-aerogenes organism and fecal bacilli. Furthermore, the smell of chlorine (odor) was found at sites 1, 2, 4, and 5, respectively. This indicates that it is not a good indicator of drinkable water in ideal condition; it should be agreeable or unobjectionable in the drinkable water (Table 4).

DISCUSSION
The current study highlights the water quality of selected sites in the Indian Iron and Steel Industry, Burnpur, in West Bengal, India. In the first section of the study, we assess the employee's knowledge, awareness, and overall perception of drinking water quality. In the second section, we evaluated the physicochemical and bacteriological quality of the drinking water.
Based on the analytical results, we found that most employees are more aware of drinking water quality, pollution, and their effects on health. Regarding the job category, most employees (88%) from manager/supervisor roles perceived that industrial pollution could affect water quality. However, almost 45% of employees under the laborer's category reported that industrial pollution does not affect drinking water quality. The possible reason could be that managers/supervisors are educationally qualified and more aware of industrial pollution than other employees. We found that the work designation and location influenced the employees' perception. We found a similar result in Mumbi and Watanabe's (2020) study to validate this context. The current study also highlights the employee's perception of water quality based on organoleptic properties such as clarity, color, smell, taste, and healthiness. Previous studies have revealed that organoleptic evaluations are important and primary determinants of an individual's judgment of the quality of drinking water (Benneyworth et al. 2016, Abdi-Soojeede & Kullane 2019. Our study also found that most of the employees considered all the organoleptic properties of the water under the acceptable to excellent category.  However, only 30% of the employees of site 1 (Coke Oven By Product) have reported organoleptic properties of water under the excellent category. The possible explanation could be that the coke oven plants produce more pollutants than other departments, frequently contaminating drinking water quality. This reason was validated by Mishra et al. (2018) study, where they examined the physio-chemical test of the coke oven water and found that concentrations of BOD (73.13 mg.L -1 ), COD (540.25 mg.L -1 ), and cyanide (27.9 mg.L -1 ) exceeded the tolerance limit of the sample water.
On the contrary, a maximum number of employees (84.62 %) from site 8 (Demineralization Plant) perceived that the organoleptic properties of water are under the excellent category. The summary of the first section reveals that most of the employees from each department are satisfied with water quality, except Coke Oven By-Product department employees are not completely trusted with the drinking water quality. Therefore, our result reflects that employees are satisfied and trust the drinking water quality. However, it is important to note that perception, awareness, knowledge, and satisfaction are subjective and complex interactions that vary.
In the second section, we analyzed the eight physicochemical and four bacteriological parameters using BIS (2012) and WHO (1997WHO ( , 2008 guidelines for drinking water quality. Our result indicates that most physicochemical properties were within the permissible limit of the quality of drinking water standards. Regarding bacteriological properties, the colony count concentration was higher than the permissible levels for safe drinking water set by the WHO (1997) guidelines. Moreover, only Site 6 reported that most bacteriological properties are above the permissible limit. The possible reason can be irregularity in the cleaning of the water storage tank of Site 6, which was observed during the field visit, and the statement made by the employee during the interview. However, further investigation can bring the actual reason behind the containment of the water in site 6. Overall, our study results are matched with a previous study conducted in Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) in India; in that study, they found that physicochemical and bacteriological parameters of the water were under the permissible limits except for alkalinities (Vinod et al. 2013). Overall, this study clearly stated a minor difference in tab water, tank water, and RO water in all sites in the industry. In summary, employees' perception of water quality aligns with water's actual physicochemical and bacteriological properties. The overwhelming majority of the employees in each department believed that their water drinking water within the industry was of acceptable to excellent quality, and almost similar results we found after the analyzed laboratory result of the water.

LIMITATIONS
This study may have some potential limitations. 1) The first section of the study was purely based on knowledge and perception, which may vary by various factors; therefore, we cannot generalize our results for other Iron and Steel Industries. 2) This study used a limited number of organoleptic terms. This study did not include other important properties like trust, risk perception, and contextual indicators. 3) Water quality index is the best tool to describe water quality. However, we could not conduct a water quality index due to the limited number of physicochemical properties.

CONCLUSION
The study results indicate that perception and actual water quality are complex interactions, and diverse factors are associated with these two groups. A large number of employees have trusted industrial drinking water. However, we found dissimilarities in perception based on the designation of employees. The result explained that other physicochemical and bacteriological properties are in good status in all sites except for a colony count, expressing their suitability for drinking purposes. However, it is important to note that the presence of colony count in each site's drinking water provokes immediate investigation and corrective action by the Iron and Steel Industry, Burnpur. Also, the steel industry should promote an awareness program about drinking water quality and develop a holistic understanding of industrial pollution and water quality among employees. Additionally, the industry should test water's physicochemical and bacteriological quality at regular intervals to identify those departments where water quality is poor and make the best possible solution for the particular department.