water Article Investigating the Status of Cadmium, Chromium and Lead in the Drinking Water Supply Chain to Ensure Drinking Water Quality in Malaysia Minhaz Farid Ahmed 1,* , Mazlin Bin Mokhtar 1,*, Lubna Alam 1, Che Abd Rahim Mohamed 2 and Goh Choo Ta 1 1 Institute for Environment and Development (LESTARI), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), UKM Bangi 43600, Selangor, Malaysia;
[email protected] (L.A.);
[email protected] (G.C.T.) 2 School of Environmental and Natural Resource Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), UKM Bangi 43600, Selangor, Malaysia;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected] (M.F.A.);
[email protected] (M.B.M.); Tel.: +603-8921-3894 (M.F.A.); +603-8921-4149 (M.B.M.) Received: 1 August 2020; Accepted: 3 September 2020; Published: 23 September 2020 Abstract: Prolonged persistence of toxic cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr) and lead (Pb) in the aquatic environment are due to its nonbiodegradable characteristic. A few studies have reported higher concentrations of these metals in the transboundary Langat River, Malaysia. This study determined the spatial and temporal distributions of Cd, Cr and Pb concentrations (2005–2015) in the Langat River along with assessing the status of these metals in the drinking water supply chain at the basin. Water samples were collected once in 2015 from the drinking water supply chain, i.e., from the river, treated water at plants, taps and filtration water at households. Determined mean concentrations of Cd, Cr and Pb by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry in the Langat River were within the drinking water quality standard of Malaysia and the WHO, except for the Pb (9.99 1.40 µg/L) ± concentration, which was at the maximum limit, 10 µg/L.