Poster Presentation Australasian Groundwater Conference 2017

Witnessing lacunas in the overall water & wastewater treatment and management which includes ‘unsatisfactory’ treatment of Wastewater, ineffective Common effluent Treatment plant, mismanagement of Rain Water Harvesting (both groundwater Recharge and roof top rainwater Harvesting) and Depleting groundwater table, there is clear-cut indication of contamination of groundwater. As a significant portion of water demand is met through ground water, there was a dire need for a assessing the intensity of groundwater pollution across the city which host more than 75 lakh people. Addressing to need, the present study was initiated which focus on spatiotemporal analysis of the groundwater quality (in terms of Water Quality Index) the research work would give clues for the ‘cause effect relationship’ for groundwater pollution which would help the city administration to evolve suitable mitigation strategies.

A field campaign was done to collect the raw groundwater samples from different parts of the city representing different parts of the city representing different land use/land cover. A total of 28 samples were collected in the month of April, 2016, and were analyzed in laboratory for 8 parameters which were pH, TDS, Turbidity, Chloride, acidity, Hardness, alkalinity, Sulfate. Analysis was done by following the standard methods as presented by American public health association. Based on the observed correlation of a parameter along with the permissible limit on recommended by bureau of Indian standards, Water Quality Index was computed to assess the suitability of water for drinking purpose.

Table 1 Suitability based Classification of Water Quality Index

 Water samples were observed to have higher TDS than Desirable limit (500 ppm) that leads to higher water quality index. It shows that untreated water is not suitable for drinking purpose in urban community.