Vol. 7, Issue 10 (2018)

Author(s):
Nijesh P, Santosh Kr Yadav and AK Ghosh

Abstract:
Drinking water quality is mandatory for the annual analysis of a region as it gives us a wide range of information about the entire aquifer quality as well as crop productivity of a region. Arajiline block of Varanasi district is a major crop productive block in the central Gangetic plain zone. It was chosen as the study area since a significant part of the groundwater is used for drinking and agricultural purpose. The objective of the study was to bring out an integrated approach for the assessment of groundwater quality for drinking purposes. An integrated approach that included the concentration of major cations, anions, spatial variability of major ions, Total Hardness (TH) was employed to investigate the groundwater quality for drinking purposes. A total of 82 water samples were collected from different dug wells and hand pumps of the villages of Arajiline block in the pre monsoon season and analysed for pH, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids (TDS), Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, Na⁺, K⁺, Cl⁻, SO₄²⁻, HCO₃^- and CO₃^-2. The analytical data were compared with the Bureau of Indian Standards and World Health Organization standards to determine drinking water quality. Most of the surface water samples were found to be suitable as per the drinking water quality standards, but only an insignificant number of groundwater samples were unsuitable for drinking based on the concentration of major ions. Around 11% of the water samples are showing higher concentration of potassium in the groundwater which could be due to use of fertilizers.