World Applied Sciences Journal 26 (1): 75-82, 2013

ISSN 1818-4952
IDOSI Publications, 2013
DOI: 10.5829/idosi.wasj.2013.26.01.1323

Water Quality of River, Lake and Drinking Water Supply in

Penang State by Means of Multivariate Analysis
Suhair S. Salih, Abbas F.M. Alkarkhi, Japareng Bin Lalung and Norli Ismail
School of Industrial Technology,
Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Penang, Malaysia
Submitted: Sep 8, 2013;

Accepted: Nov 7, 2013;

Published: Nov 10, 2013

Abstract: Statistical techniques such as multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and discriminate analysis
(DA) were used to analyze the data obtained from three different locations (rivers, lake, drinking water supply).
Seven parameters were measured pH, temperature, TSS, COD, BOD, turbidity and E. coli to investigate the
pollution status. MANOVA showed a strong significant difference. While discriminate analysis (DA) explained
the differences between different locations with the use of two functions. The first function showed 98.4%
total variation, mainly due to E. coli, turbidity, BOD, temperature and COD. Even as the second function
recorded 1.6% total variation, mainly due to E. coli, COD, temperature and pH. DA was also used to determine
the relative contribution for all parameters in differentiating between river, lake and tap water. The results also
showed strong correlations between COD and suspended solids. BOD with temperature, COD and pH.
Turbidity with pH, temperature, COD and BOD. E. coli with COD, BOD, pH, temperature and suspended
solids and a strong association of temperature with pH. These derived relationships can be used to produce
reasonable planning estimates for the frequency of high E. coli levels (>200/100 mL) in rivers and lakes.
Key words: MANOVA

Discriminate analysis

E. coli

INTRODUCTION

BOD

COD

necessary to forestall and control the rivers pollution by

acquiring reliable data water quality for effective
management.
Penang is a state located in the northwest of
Malaysia. The state has six dam structures managed by
PBA (Perbadanan Bekalan Air). Between these reservoirs,
Mengkuang Reservoir (M.R) has the highest capacity.
The capacity of Mengkuang Reservoir is almost nine
times more than Air Itam Reservoir. The present water
supplies are sufficient for Penang state, though increasing
population demands proactive steps by the government
to effectively manage and conserve the existing water
supply. The surrounding area of Mengkuang Reservoir
consists of natural tropical forest and recreational spots
comprising landscaped gardens and sitting benches.
M.R is a part of the Mengkuang pumped storage scheme
that supplies more than 81 million gallons of untreated
and drinking water per day to Penang Island, Butterworth
and other parts of the state. Recently, there has been an

There has been a universal interest about faecal

contamination of natural water bodies and its potential
impact on human health. Several studies on Best
Management Practices (BMPs) have been conducted to
reduce untreated human and domestic animal waste
discharge, however, our limited understanding of bacteria
dynamics within a watershed remains imperfect [1, 2].
Rivers have become a source of tourist attraction and
hospitality, which has prompted the construction of
hotels and resorts around the area. These drastic
developments have caused deforestation, resulting in
gradual erosion of the surrounding bare soil during
rainfall. The weathered soil runs into the rivers and forms
a murky layer that blocks out sunlight from reaching the
aquatic life thereby causing the loss of marine life.
Since, rivers constitute the main inland water resources
for domestic, industrial and irrigation purposes, it is

Corresponding Author: Norli Ismail, School of Industrial Technology,

Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Penang, Malaysia.

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World Appl. Sci. J., 26 (1): 75-82, 2013

increase in economic development in Malaysia as a result

of more land use, urbanization, industrialization and the
expansion of mechanized agriculture. These economic
growth factors have adversely affected the quantity and
quality of water supply while simultaneously increasing
the demand for limited freshwater resources. Therefore,
appropriate management and monitoring of drinking water
supply is critical.
Monitoring of physio-chemical parameters is a
routine water quality assessment for drinking water
supply in Malaysia. While chemical analysis has certain
limitations such as time, cost and technical restraints,
biological studies are capable of providing continuous
temporal and spatial information on water ecosystem
without aforementioned limitations. In Malaysia,
biological monitoring in water supplies normally involves
total coli form count for detection of focal pollution. [3]
The application of multivariate methods for analyzing
environmental data has increased enormously in recent
times [4, 5, 6]. Multivariate methods involve the
measurement of several dependant variables for each
sampling unit. Multivariate analysis of variance
(MANOVA) has been used to test the significant
differences, while discriminate function (DF) has been
used to identify the relative contribution of all variables to
the separation of the groups [7, 8].
Water pollution is going to be a serious problem in
Malaysia and post a negative impacts on the
sustainability of water resources plants and living
organisms, people's health and the country's economy [9].
Previous studies relevant to the water quality of Sungai
Pinang Basin explained that there are several major water
pollution sources attributed to anthropogenic activities
such as domestic sewage, agricultural and industrial
wastes [10, 11]. The objective of this research project is to
determine the differences in pollution status between
river, lake and drinking water supply, based on several
parameters which include; pH, temperature, TSS, COD,
BOD, turbidity and E. coli, in order to identify differences
in pollution between these locations.

E) and flows through the state. The total area of the

Sungai Pinang river basin is about 50.97 km2 and its length
is approximately 3.1 km. Over half of the basin is covered
with forest with about one-third of the river basin area
being used as arable land. The water quality of Sungai
Pinang is categorized as Class V which is considered
"very polluted", in accordance with proposed Interim
National Water Quality Standards (INWQS) for
Malaysia. Figure 1 shows the location of Sungai Pinang
River.
Specifically, the two lakes in Universiti Sains
Malaysia (USM) main campus; Lake Tasik Harapan
(0.80 hectares) and Lake Aman approximately (0.58 acres),
were chosen for this study. These are one of the
man-made engineering landscapes that have garnered
much attention from the community in the campus.
The lakes were constructed in 1990 as retention ponds in
order to reduce the effect of flash flood after a heavy
downpour. To maintain the beauty of these lakes, a
20 meter buffer area around the lake was provided [12].
However, from recent site observations, it was found that
the lakes are severely polluted and the water is greenish
in colour [13].
Water Sampling and Analysis: The technique used for
the collection of water samples is referred to as grab
sampling. Water samples were taken at each tributary
using a bucket attached to a rope. Samples for laboratory
analyzing were collected in HDPE bottles that were
pre-soaked in HCI for 24 hours and copiously rinsed with
deionizer water. The sample containers were filled slowly
to the brim to avoid air bubbles. Samples collected were
then stored at 4C. The samples were collected out during
the dry weather.
Parameters Selected for Analysis: Samples obtained
from different locations were analyzed for seven
parameters: pH, temperature C, Biochemical Oxygen
Demand (BOD) (mg/l), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD)
(mg/l), Total Suspended Solids (TSS) (mg/l), turbidity
(NTU) and E. coli (CFU/100 ml). The methods of analysis
are in line with the requirements of Standard Methods
[14]. Temperature and pH were measured in site by using
thermometer and pH meter( ph107 Digital Pocket PH Meter
tester) respectively. While the other parameters such as
Biochemical Oxygen Demand, Chemical Oxygen Demand,
Total Suspended Solids, turbidity and E. coli were carried
out in the laboratory.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Background: The study site is located within Sungai
Pinang River basin in the state of Penang, on the North
West coast of Peninsular Malaysia, [10]. It also comprises
the Sungai Pinang river, which is situated at the
North-Eastern part of the Penang Island (5 24' N l00 l9'
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World Appl. Sci. J., 26 (1): 75-82, 2013

Fig. 1: Map of Sungai Pinang River

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The maximum values of turbidity showing the

highest values for lake and river samples with values of
83.00 and 55.00 respectively. Whereas turbidity of
drinking water supply exhibited the lowest value with 0.13.
As the minimum turbidity values of lake, river and
drinking water supply were 77.00, 19.00 and 0.04
respectively. High turbidity values could be due to
possible pollution by soil erosion from the construction
and earthworks activities within this area [10]. The greater
the amount of turbidity in the lake, the murkier it appears
and the higher the measured total suspended solids
(TSS). The major source of turbidity in the open water
zone of most lakes is typically phytoplankton [17, 18].
The main cause of pollution in Lake Tasik Harapan
and Lake Aman is the poor quality of storm water which
flows into both lakes through Sungai Gambir. The storm
water manages to flow through the control gate at the
inlet when the level of water increased. The lake is also
polluted with the effluent discharged from the Indah
Water Konsortium (IWK) wastewater treatment plant.
This situation has contributed to the loss of ecological
functions and destruction of ecosystem in the lake.
Figure 2 shows the location of Lake Hope in USM main
campus.

Descriptive Statistics: Descriptive statistics for the

selected parameters, which include: minimum, maximum,
mean and standard deviation for different locations river,
lake and drinking water supply are shown in Table 1.
The mean value of E. coli was arranged for three locations
in the following order: river > lake > drinking water supply.
The E. coli sample from river displayed the highest level
with 1162.5000, whilst E. coli value for the lake showed
lower value compared to river 211.25, although the E. coli
sample from drinking water supply exhibited the lowest
value with 2.2500. On the other hand, the minimum values
of the E. coli samples from river, lake and drinking water
supply were, 500.00, 170.00 and 0.00 respectively. The
difference in E. coli values could be due to the effect of
industrial discharge such as food processing plants,
abattoirs, residential areas and wet market, which
discharging their wastes into the river [15], additionally
degradation within the lake drainage basin caused by
excess sediment and non- point sources inputs associated
with rapid development, increased land use and pollution
from agrochemical and sewage effluent affect the E. coli
values [16].
77

World Appl. Sci. J., 26 (1): 75-82, 2013

of water. This an indicator of untreated effluent

discharged into these water bodies, such as domestic
sewage, agricultural and industrial wastes.
The correlation matrix of the concentration of selected
parameters measured from different locations, namely
river, lake and drinking water supply were examined. The
correlation coefficients for selected parameters are given
in Table 2. For water sampled from river, a strong negative
relationship was exhibited between COD and E. coli with
TSS and between turbidity with pH and BOD and positive
relationship between BOD and pH and between E. coli
and COD. Different patterns of relationship were shown
between the selected parameters for water sampled from
a lake since a strong positive relationship was exhibited
between E. coli with temperature, pH and BOD and
between COD, BOD with pH and temperature and positive
relationship was displayed between temperature and pH,
whereas there is negatively relationship between turbidity
with temperature, COD, BOD and pH and positively
relationship between BOD and COD for drinking water
supply.
Although bacteria-TSS relationships have been
previously examined separately by different research
teams [19,20], sufficiently strong relationships between
bacteria, turbidity and TSS may be discovered and used
to develop planning level timales of indicator bacteria
(e.g. fecal coli form) levels on a continuous basis. This
could help to decrease the costs and time-constraints of
fecal coli form sampling. Oxygen-related parameters, COD
and BOD, showed high positive correlation with E. coli.
COD is a very important indicator for E. coli growth as it
measures the capacity of water to consume oxygen
during the decomposition of organic matter and the
oxidation of inorganic chemicals such as ammonia and
nitrate. BOD also showed a strong linear correlation with
E. coli, therefore indicating that the water contained
relatively high concentration of sewage contamination.
Also there is positively correlation between pH and
temperature with COD and BOD, when the degree of pH
is very low or high, for both cases the growth of bacteria
was decrease. Nevertheless, in low temperature, the cell
metabolism starts to slow while high temperature leads to
stop the growth of bacteria [21]. That means the
temperature and pH are effected on the COD and BOD.
The suspended particles in water which causes the
turbidity, adsorb the sunlight and lead to increase the
temperature of water [22], this explains the relationship
between turbidity and the temperature of water.
Also when the pH of water was low, the removal ratio
of turbidity will increase [23].This indicates that
relationship between turbidity and pH was negatively.

Fig. 2: Map of Tasik Harapan Lake in USM

Table 1: Descriptive statistics including Minimum, Maximum, Mean and
Std. Deviation for the different locations river, lake and drinking
water supply
River
Descriptive Statistics
pH
Temp
TSS
COD
BOD
Turb
Ecoli1

Minimum

Maximum

Mean

Std. Deviation

4
4
4
4
4
4
4

6.50
29.00
16.00
200.00
7.00
19.00
500.00

7.50
32.00
37.00
1100.00
9.50
55.00
2000.00

7.1250
30.0000
27.0000
650.0000
8.5000
31.0000
1162.5000

.47871
1.41421
10.55146
465.47467
1.08012
16.75311
711.07313

Lake
Descriptive Statistics
pH
Temp
TSS
COD
BOD
Turb
Ecoli1

Minimum

Maximum

Mean

Std. Deviation

4
4
4
4
4
4
4

6.20
26.00
83.00
90.00
10.00
77.00
170.00

6.70
27.00
140.00
100.00
12.00
83.00
250.00

6.4750
26.5000
120.2500
96.1000
11.0750
79.7500
211.2500

.20616
.40825
25.38208
4.27863
.83016
2.50000
34.24787

Drinking Water Supply

Descriptive Statistics
pH
Temp
TSS
COD
BOD
Turb
E. coli

Minimum

Maximum

Mean

Std. Deviation

4
4
4
4
4
4
4

6.50
25.00
.00
.00
.00
.04
.00

7.00
26.00
.00
3.00
1.00
.13
5.00

6.6500
25.4750
.0008
1.8750
.7500
.0856
2.2500

.23805
.55000
.00056
1.31498
.50000
.04058
2.21736

The resulting values of the several parameters

analyzed for the river and lake samples are higher than the
acceptable limit established by Interim National Water
Quality Standard (INWQS) for Malaysia while the
parameter values for the drinking water supply are within
the allowable range. Therefore, The Sungai Pinang River
and Lake Tasik Harapan are considered polluted sources
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World Appl. Sci. J., 26 (1): 75-82, 2013

Table 2: Correlation matrix for selective parameter in Sungai Pinang, Tasik Harapan and tap water.
River
pH
Temp.
TSS
COD
BOD
Turbidity
E. coli

pH

Temp.

TSS

COD

BOD

Turbidity

E. coli

1
.739
-.924
.935
.967*
-.977
.900

1
-.894
.861
.764
-.661
.945

1
-.998**
-.863
.832
-.991**

1
.862
-.842
.979*

1
-.986*
.868

1
-.816

Lake
pH
Temp.
TSS
COD
BOD
Turbidity
E. coli

pH

Temp.

TSS

COD

BOD

Turbidity

E. coli

1
.990**
-.852
.986*
.988*
-.986*
.950*

1
-.917
.954*
.984*
-.980*
.954*

1
-.758
-.865
.858
-.867

1
.975*
-.975*
.934

1
-1.000**
.986*

1
-.988*

pH

Temp.

TSS

COD

BOD

Turbidity

E. coli

1
.777
-.804
.612
.420
-.805
.789

1
-.819
.570
.576
-.974*
.444

1
-.933
-.875
.926
.833

1
.951*
-.740
-.872

1
-.730
.676

1
-.604

Trap
pH
Temp.
TSS
COD
BOD
Turbidity
E. coli

* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed ).

**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed ).
Table 3: Multivariate test (MANOVA) for all locations
Effect
Location

Pillai's Trace
Wilks' Lambda
Hotelling's Trace
Roy's Largest Root

Value

Sig.

1.939
0.000
956.651
940.959

18.174
53.312b
136.664
537.691c

0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000

Multivariate Analysis: Multivariate

analysis of
variance (MANOVA) was used to determine the
difference in the water samples collected from three
locations based on seven parameters. The results of
MANOVA showed differences in the concentrations of
selected parameter in water sampled from the three
locations (Table 3), which suggests that the source of
pollution is different for each location. For instance,
domestic sewage, agricultural and industrial wastes, soil
erosion from construction site and urban runoff are
identified as the main sources of pollution in river [24],
while pollution in lake include eutrophication, inorganic
pollution sedimentation and siltation, over-exploitation,
loss of biodiversity, habitat change, aquatic plant
infestation [16].
Spatial
variations
in
selected
parameter
concentrations were further evaluated using DA.

Discriminate analysis consisted of seven parameters.

Two discriminate functions were responsible for
differentiating the three locations as shown in Eqs. 1
and 2. Wilks Lamda test showed that DF is statistically
significant as indicated by p<0.0001 in Table 4.
Furthermore, 100% of the total variation between the three
locations was explained by two discriminate functions.
The relative contribution of each parameter is given in
Eqs. 1 and 2.
Z = 0.65 pH - 2.28 Temp. + 0.96 TSS - 1.01 COD + 2.75 BOD
+ 3.09 Trub. + 3.53 E. coli
(1)
Z = 2.40 pH - 3.61 Temp. + 0.02 TSS -5.75 COD -0.41 BOD
+ 1.06 Trub. + 7.69 E. coli
(2)
79

World Appl. Sci. J., 26 (1): 75-82, 2013

Table 4: Wilks Lambda for testing discriminate function validity
Wilks' Lambda
Test of Function(s)

Wilks' Lambda

Chi-square

df

Sig.

1 through 2
2

0.000
0.060

57.978
16.890

14
6

<0.0001
<0.010

Table 5: Eigen-value for each discriminate function

Function

Eigenvalue

% of Variance

Cumulative %

Canonical Correlation

1
2

940.959a
15.693a

98.4
1.6

98.4
100.0

0.999
0.970

a. First 2 canonical discriminant functions were used in the analysis.

D1
40

30

20

10

D1

0
R

-10

-20

-30

-40

Fig. 3: Scores for the first standardized discriminate function

D2
4

0
R

D2

-2

-4

-6

-8

Fig. 4: Scores for the second standardized discriminate function

80

World Appl. Sci. J., 26 (1): 75-82, 2013

REFERENCES

The first discriminate function explains 98.4 % total

variation between different locations whilst the second
discriminate function explains 1.6 % total variation. Eq. 1
showed that E. coli contributed highly in discriminating
the three locations and account for most of the
expected variations in Eq. 1, followed by turbidity
which provided the second highest contribution,
while other parameters contributed less in discriminating
the locations. Eq. 2 showed that E. coli contributed highly
in discriminating the three locations and accounted for
most of the expected variations in Eq. 2, with COD
showing the second highest support while other
parameters contributed less in differentiating the
locations.
The relationship between the scores of discriminate
function and water sampled from various locations are
presented in Figs. 3 and 4, which correspond to the
values of discriminate function for the different samples.
The samples R represents water samples collected from
the river, L represents water sample of lake and T water
samples of drinking water supply. Fig. 3 reveals that water
sampled from drinking water supply contributed
negatively while water sampled from river and lake
contributed positively to the first discriminate function.
Fig. 4 indicates that water sampled from river contributed
negatively while water sampled from lake and drinking
water supply contributed positively to the second
discriminate function. These differences are related to the
reasons many toxic chemicals and acids entered the lakes
and reservoirs from the atmosphere and pollution often
occurs on lakes rather than streams or rivers. TSS and
turbidity concentrations are the main pollutants for lakes
which affect the water clarity.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.
9.

CONCLUSION
10.
Based on the above results and discussion it can be
seen that multivariate statistical technique has been
proved to be an effective tool for discriminating different
locations and identifying the relative contribution of each
parameter as well. Most of the parameters tested on the
water samples from Sungai Pinang River fall within Class
V, while E. coli levels (>200 /100mL) and other parameters
for Lake Tasik Harapan fall within Class IV, but drinking
water supply is within the allowable range of established
by Interim National Water Quality Standard (INWQS)
for Malaysia. Therefore, Sungai Pinang River can be
classified as very polluted.

11.
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