Quality of drinking water in the United Arab Emirates: a systematic review
Abstract
Background Providing sufficient amount and adequate quality of drinking water for the public is one of the most important and challenging environmental health tasks worldwide, especially in arid regions. Water shortage is a critical issue in most parts of the Middle East, even for wealthy countries. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is not an exception, where bottled water is favored to tap water, which poses sustainability issues to the fight against climate change and microplastics pollution. This systematic review aims to synthesize evidence on the quality of bottled water in comparison of tap water in the UAE. Methods The systematic review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-analysis (PRISMA) 2020 guidelines. Structured search was performed in five scientific databases, screening, data extraction and risk of bias assessment were carried out by two reviewers and data were synthesized in summary tables. Results 14 papers were finally included in this systematic review. All were cross-sectional studies from four of the seven Emirates of the UAE. Seven studies investigated components in bottled water, six in tap water and one in both, comparing their results to various national and international standards. The studies detected several parameters out of the normal range, especially in tap water, where physical parameters, such as turbidity and electrical conductivity, chemical parameters, such as chlorine and several metals, including…
How strong is the evidence?
Evidence Hub reads this as a systematic review, done in people. Its evidence level is 1 of 5 (Highest · pooled evidence). Pooled evidence from several studies sits at the top of the evidence pyramid.
Read the paper
Related studies
- Green Chemistry: A Framework for a Sustainable Future
- Nano/micro-plastic, an invisible threat getting into the brain
- Emerging contaminants antibiotic resistance genes and microplastics in the environment: Introduction to 21 review articles published in CREST during 2018–2022
- Water Resources and Sustainable Development
- Nano- and microplastics in the workplace
- Water Enclosure and World-Literature: New Perspectives on Hydro-Power and World-Ecology
Go deeper in Evidence Hub
Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.