Public Awareness of Residents of Tehran City (District 18) Concerning Nitrate Pollution of Drinking Water

The main aim of this study is to evaluate the public awareness of residents of water-polluted areas in Tehran city regarding their water quality (especially nitrate pollution), and to meter their different approaches (action) to this environmental problem. For this purpose, district 18 (Yaft Abad, southwest of Tehran) was selected. A questionnaire was prepared and distributed randomly among residents of the selected area in May 2011. The obtained data analyzed statistically with SPSS software. Preliminary investigations on collected data showed that about 74% of the individuals were aware of the low quality of their drinking water, although 71% and 78% of the people were completely unaware of nitrate pollutant and its health hazards, respectively. Approximately 55% of questioned persons knew that their drinking water would threat their health and it is not drinkable. However, more than 66% of the people used directly tap water as drinking water.