Current World Environment

Introduction

Water is renewable natural resource of earth and sustains the needs of all living creatures in the world¹ and health depends on the availability of drinking water. It is considered a basic human right and a part of effective policy² for protection of health.

Groundwater is one of the major sources of drinking water in both urban and rural India and the quality comprises the physical, chemical, and biological properties of ground water. Quantity and Quality Management³ of groundwater presents the best of current thinking on managing groundwater resources. It focuses on the interrelationship between quantity and quality. Potable ground water is an essential resource, yet it is exploited and contaminated³ in developed and developing countries.

Water quality has significant role in human health and both natural and anthropogenic effects⁴ govern the quality of ground water within a region. Availability of potable drinking water is essential to human health⁵ all over the world. If groundwater contains high amount of various ions and salts, using it for leads to various water borne diseases.⁶

Groundwater is considered as one of major part of the purest forms of water available in Nature to serve the needs of rural and urban people. Major part of the Indian populace depends upon freshwater supplies from open wells, ponds, bore wells, natural springs etc. In addition to this, also groundwater is continuously used for irrigation in rural India. Due to increased human population, growth of industrial activities, dumping of industrial waste, improper disposal of garbage, use of fertilizers in agriculture and manmade activities, quality of water is polluted in most areas.  Rapid growth in population and the quick pace of industrialization required more potable water and this need affected the quality of water.⁷ Enormous use of fertilizers and poor conditions in agricultural development led to the damage of human health.⁸ Taking all these factors are consideration, the researchers conclude that people should have at least minimum knowledge on quality of drinking water.

The groundwater quality is assessed to find out the presence of physico-chemical substances and these substances widely change⁹ due to the conditions like pollutions of various types, variations in monsoon and overutilization of potable groundwater etc. Therefore, it is mandatory to monitor the quality of potable ground water to alleviate the problem of pollution in water and pollution causing agents are to be controlled. Human welfare has directly related to the quality of ground water. Therefore, monitoring the water quality is one of the essential¹⁰ issues of drinking water management. This research work attempts to evaluate the some physical and chemical parameters of potable groundwater in the selected locations of villages in Veeraghattam and Palakonda Mandals of Srikakulam District, Andhra Pradesh.

Experimental

Water sampling

The water samples are collected as per standard procedure¹¹ in the month of February 2013 and March 2014 from the selected sites in the villages of Veeraghattam and Palakonda Mandals. They are analyzed immediately for various parameters or preserved safely by taking care with suitable standard precautionary methods to avoid deterioration/alteration. All the water samples are collected in 2 Liters plastic bottles that were washed and double rinsed with distilled water before sampling. The list of sample collection areas/villages in Veeraghattam and Palakonada are given in the Table 1.

Table1: List of sample collection sites in Veeraghattam and Palakonda Mandal

Instruments used

The following instruments like UV-Visible Double beam Spectrophotometer (Model AU – 2701, Systronics), Digital pH meter (Model 335, Systronics), Nefleometer (Model 132, Systronics), Digital Conductometer(Model 306, Systronics), Micro processor based bunch P^H / Ion  meter, Cyber scan 2100, Eutech instruments (USA) with fluoride  sensitive electrode are used to analyze for various constituents present in groundwater samples.

Chemicals used

All the Chemicals used are of Analytical Reagent Grade (Merck, BDH and Qualigens) and the solutions are prepared by using triply distilled water. The following solutions are used in this research work like Potassium hydrogen phthalate, Potassium hydrogen phosphate, Potassium dihydrogen phosphate, Calcium Carbonate, EDTA, Na₂CO_3, HCl, NaCl, AgNO₃, Sodium oxalate, Potassium permanganate, Ferrous Ammonium Sulphate,  K₂Cr₂O_7,  concentrated nitric acid, Hypo, 10 % BaCl₂, 10% KI , 1000 ppm  of fluoride and Nitrite solution, stock phenol solution, 4-aminoantipyrine, Potassium ferricyanide, chloroform, Ammonium chloride-ammonium hydroxide buffer solution, TISAB Buffer,  AgNO_3­ – Nitric acid reagent, Vanadate – molybdate reagent, 0.5% Sulphanalamide reagent and indicators of phenolphthalein, methyl orange, EBT, Muroxide,  K₂CrO₄ and 1% Starch.

Estimation of various constituents in water

Estimation of various constituents present in the groundwater  like pH, Electrical Conductivity(EC), Turbidity, Total Dissolved Solids(TDS), Alkalinity, Total Hardness(TH),  Fluoride(F^-), Chloride(Cl^-), Nitrite(NO₂^-), Dissolved Oxygen(DO) and  Phenol are estimated  by respective methods¹².

Results and Discussion

Forty water samples are collected from Veeraghattam Mandal and thirty-nine water samples in the Palakonda mandal of Srikakulam District in the month of February 2013 and March 2014. The results related to analyzed physico chemical parameters in the sample areas are presented in the Tables 2, 3, 4 & 5 and these values are compared to established standard values like WHO¹³ and BIS.¹⁴

Table 2: Various constituents present in the water samples in Veeraghattam mandal (February 2013) Click here to View table

Table 3: Various constituents present in the water samples in Palakonda mandal (February 2013)  Click here to View table

Table 4: Various constituents present in the water samples in Veeraghattam mandal (March 2014) Click here to View table

Table 5: Various constituents present in the water samples in Palakonda mandal (March 2014)  Click here to View table

pH

It is one of the important factors of ground water. pH is under the desirable limit all the samples of study area as per WHO and BIS.

Electrical conductivity

Ground water can be assessed with the measurement of conductivities  and this indicates level of the concentration of the TDS and major constituents. In the samples of (V1 to V6, V20 and V32) Veeraghattam Mandal and the samples of (P7, P9, P10, P12, P26, P27, P29, P38 and P39) in Palakonda mandal, these readings are more than the desirable limit.^13,14

Total Dissolved Solids (TDS)

They are the concentration of dissolved chemical constituents in water and it presents the clear idea of salinity. In the sample number V5 in the area of Veeraghattam mandal and samples of P29, P34, P38 and P39 of Palakonda mandal, the TDS content is more than the permissible limit. Based on obtained TDS values except sample V5 & samples of P29, P34, P38 and P39 in Veeraghattam and Palakonda areas are suitable to drinking as per the limits of WHO/BIS.

Total Hardness (TH)

It is considered a main characteristic property of potable drinking water. Calcium and Magnesium are the most common sources of water hardness. Except few samples V3, V5, V11 and V32 in Veeragahattam mandal & samples of P2, P7, P9, P10, P29, P38 in Palakonda mandal, remaining all samples in the study area, the hardness content is within the desirable limit as per BIS.

Chloride (Cl^-)

It originates from Sodium Chloride, which is present in water from soil and rock. This shows the quality of potable ground water and if it is in excess concentration, it mighat have been mixed with sewage or seawater. In this study area, all the samples are having Chloride content within a permissible limit as per BIS.

Fluoride (F^-)

Except the samples V2, V9, V13, V17, V20 and V39 in Veeraghattam mandal, all the remaining samples in the research area, the content of fluride concentration is within the desirable limit as per standards.

Total Alkalinity

Except a few samples in Veeraghattam mandal( samples V1, V2, V3, V5, V20 and V39) and Palakonda mandal( samples P4, P26, P27, P38 and P39), all the remaining samples in both areas are within the desirable limit. The phenol constituent is not identified in the samples and the nitrite is under desirable limit in the entire research area.

Based on the results obtained, evaluation of quality of underground water for potability in the selected areas of Veeraghattam and Palakonda mandals, the underground water quality is good as per the limits WHO and BIS. In some sites, some of the constituents are not within the desirable lim. In this aspect, further studies are carried out to identify the causes and solve the problem.

References
 

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