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Access to safe drinking water is one of the basic human rights and essential for healthy life. The present study investigated the concentrations of various pollutants in drinking water and health risk in Charsadda district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Water samples were collected from dug-wells, tube-wells and hand pumps which were the most common sources of drinking water and analyzed for physical parameters, anions, heavy metals and coliform bacteria using standard methods. The concentrations of nitrate (10.3–14.84 mg L⁻¹) in 13 sites exceeded the permissible limit (10 mg L⁻¹) set by US-EPA, while sulfate concentrations (505–555 mg L⁻¹) in 9 sites exceeded the permissible limit (500 mg L⁻¹) set by WHO. Similarly, the concentrations of Pb, Cd, Ni and Fe exceeded their respective permissible limits set by different organizations in some locations. Furthermore, the coliform bacterial contamination (2–5 …