Application of Water Quality Index to Assess Suitability of Groundwater quality for Drinking Purposes From Sirpur-Kagaznagar Area, Adilabad District

摘要

Ground water being the pristine resource plays an important role in fulfilling the needs for domestic, industrial and irrigational purposes. It is of prime importance to civilization, as is the largest resource of drinking water. Pollution of this resource has become an issue of great concern with increased urbanization and industrialization. Contamination of groundwater by industrial effluents, agricultural fertilizers and domestic sewage are recognized as a major threat. Many of the pollutants make their way into the groundwater and change its quality. This work is thus aimed at investigating the seasonal variations (pre-monsoon, monsoon and post-monsoon) in groundwater quality from Sirpur-Kaghaznagar and its suitability for drinking purposes for which ground water samples were collected and analysed on the basis of various qualitative parameters from 24 different stations and evaluated for physico- chemical parameters by implementing standard methods. Water quality index (WQI) was calculated based on 12 parameters. The study revealed that the groundwater quality was altered with respect to parameters, such as pH, EC, TDS, Ca~(2+), Mg~(2+), Na, TH, F, SO_4~2, and NO_3~-. Water quality index calculated for three seasons ranged to fall in good to unsuitable category attributed to the use of agricultural fertilizers by farmers, by paper industry effluents and mineral composition of aquifers in the study area. The suggested measures includes, proper disposal of effluents by paper industry, change in cropping pattern and creating awareness at local level.