**6. Theoretical and Practical Implications**

This study has several theoretical and practical implications. As findings of this study exposed a negative association between clean drinking water sources and waterborne illness, it may positively influence people's mindsets regarding drinking water quality and drinking water plants installed by government bodies. Moreover, this study revealed that the water from filtration plants installed by the local government is clean and safe for human consumption. Still, different private and government bodies, such as T.M.A., district councils, PHEDs, and WASA, provide services related to providing and supplying clean drinking water to the public. Still, water management by these bodies is not effective in urban areas. Coordination between the federal and provisional governments seemed lacking. Thus, this study will draw the government's attention to the installation of more drinking plants for the benefit of society and will show the government of Pakistan that the availability of such plants is a good option for the sustainable management of drinking water in hard-hit and water-scarce areas of Pakistan.

Besides, class circumstances such as the size of the family and the education of the family head are enormously correlated to the quality and use of drinking water and ultimately to health-associated outcomes by improving healthy lifestyle. Thus, this study has the potential for realizing households to be more educated and have small family sizes to have improved lifestyles in terms of drinking water quality.

This assessment has provided a comprehensive layout of concerns with the quality of drinking water in Pakistan through an exceptional focus on key water impurities, water degradation sources, and subsequent health-associated concerns. Thus, this review contributed substantially to endorsing consciousness in realizing the hazards and threats of the factors causing water pollution and waterborne diseases. This comprehensive investigation will likewise advance the public's ability to quantitatively comprehend the effects of drinking water effluence and the efficiency of prevailing inventiveness regarding clean drinking water for the public, undertaken by the local government by the fixation of filtration plants. However, this enumerated valuation will also be a helpful instrument for the government to intend better strategies for providing impurity-free drinking water to the community. As water hails from easily accessible and improved sources, households must spend less effort and time collecting it. Additionally, as local governments install filtration plants to make clean drinking water conveniently available to the public in various places, it will allow the public to avoid risky journeys for collecting clean drinking water.

Moreover, as the study's findings exposed, people bear fewer health expenses due to having access to better drinking water sources because they are less likely to become victims of waterborne diseases. Thus, this study is useful for realizing the local government's public importance of drinking water filtration plants. Additionally, this evaluation will significantly contribute to the literature regarding health-associated issues. Another value of this detailed study is that it will be considered a strong reference tool in impending studies. As a whole, it will assist in enhancing the progression of research focused on concerns associated with the quality of drinking water and clean drinking water sources.

#### **7. Conclusions and Recommendations**

The findings of this study revealed the conclusion that people who make life choices of drinking filtered plant water are less likely to contract waterborne diseases. Besides, class circumstances such as the family size, the family head's education, and plant water usage are enormously correlated to the quality and use of drinking water and ultimately to the health-associated outcomes by improving healthy lifestyle. While the age of the household head was found to be insignificant in making choices regarding drinking water choices and reduction in waterborne illness, the education of the family head, the number of family members, and households were found to be more habitual in engaging in practices for using plant water. Thus, in areas with these filtration plants, infants, children, and other people are less likely to contract waterborne incidents. In short, it is concluded from the study's results that the impacts of clean drinking water are significantly different from unclean drinking water. Clean drinking water from any source helps prevent waterborne illness and reduce waterborne associated costs, while unclean water is found unsafe for the health of residents.

Thus, it is recommended that awareness campaigns be launched by the public and private sector/civil society about the advantages of drinking water to enhance the ratio of plant water users in treatment areas. The local government must boost the number of these filtration plants to cover the large proportion of the population and maximize the benefits of impurity-free water for the public. To ensure water availability throughout the day, even during electricity load shedding in the country, generators should be fixed with these plants. Areas adjacent to the plants must be focused on cleanliness regularly to build a positive image of these plants near the public. Awareness campaigns must be launched to increase public awareness concerning drinking water contamination, hazardous and quality hits to take preventive measures to protect themselves from the perilous effects of bad quality water.

#### **8. Limitations and Future Recommendations**

This study has some limitations as well. This study lacks data about the mother's age and education, which greatly influence life choices and life chances. Future studies can collect data regarding the mother's age and education, which greatly influence life choices and life chances. Waterborne diseases are influenced by various factors, including poor hygiene practices and a family history of the disease, which are the focus of this study. These factors can also be manipulated in future studies.

Moreover, this study only measured the impacts on the income of households in terms of waterborne expenditures, while the impacts on income due to losing work productivity and working days were ignored. Thus, future studies could examine the loss of workers' productivity and the consequent impacts on income due to waterborne illness. The generalizability of this study can be enhanced by focusing on other areas of Lahore having filtration plant facilities. This study was just meant to check the impact of filtration plants installed by the local government on disease elevation while not focusing on determining whether these filtration plants' water quality meets the standards set by WHO or not. Further study can be conducted to determine the water quality of these filtration plants installed by the local government and other government authorities.

Additionally, this study is limited to filtration plants installed by local government and community development, whereas other authorities such as T.M.A., district councils, PHEDs, WASA, and private bodies have also installed filtration plants for the provision of clean drinking water to the public of Pakistan; therefore, further studies can be executed to check the impacts of filtration plants on water other than local government at the household level. Moreover, further studies can be conducted in other countries, especially those with or without water crises or safety issues, to enhance the generalizability of the findings. The

local government installed filtration plants for the benefit of the public. As a result, the government had to bear some cost, which was not measured in this study; therefore, further studies can be conducted to perform a cost–benefit analysis of these filtration plants.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, A.A.; Data curation, A.A.; Formal analysis, A.A., K.A. and M.A.u.H.; Funding acquisition, A.A. and I.T.H.; Methodology, M.A.u.H. and K.A; Project administration, K.A.; Resources, I.T.H. and M.R.R.; Software, K.A.; Supervision, K.A.; Validation, K.A.; Writing—original draft, A.A.; Writing—review & editing, M.A.u.H., I.T.H. and M.R.R. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research was not funded by any source (individual, group, or organization).

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** The current study did not conduct any experiments on humans or animals in the lab; thus, no ethical committee approval is required for this research.

**Informed Consent Statement:** For this type of study, formal consent was not required. However, this study ensured that before starting the interview, the purpose of the study was explained, and informal consent was also obtained for voluntary participation in the final survey. The secrecy and anonymity of the given information and data were ensured.

**Data Availability Statement:** The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
