Drinking water is essential to life. It can be a source of exposure to pathogens, chemical, physical and radiological contaminants. The objective of the study is to gives information of major quality constituents of drinking water in Egypt. To achieve this goal, forty eight tap water samples were collected from sixteen different locations in some governorates in Egypt. In addition, nine selected samples from three common commercial bottled water were chemical analyzed. pH and EC were measured for water samples. Concentrations of some major cations (Na, K and Mg) and heavy metals in drinking waters such as:(Mn, Fe, Se , Zn Hg, Cd, and Pb) comparing with guidelines for drinking water organizations. Atomic absorption spectrophotometer was used for determination of elements in drinking water. The concentrations of heavy metals in tap water in Aswan were lower than the values observed in other regions of Egypt. Sodium content of bottled water was lower than the values reported on the labels of investigated samples of bottled water. Samples were below the maximum guidelines set by World Health Organization. |