Current World Environment

Introduction

Water is a natural resource that sustains the necessary needs of all living creatures. It is not only for drinking and it plays a vital role in various sectors as in the form of an essential Engineering material. It is required for sustaining all forms of life, food production, economic development of industry and agriculture

The main resource of fresh water is the ground water,¹ which is commonly used for domestic, irrigation and industrial purposes. Ground water is the major source of drinking water in both urban and rural India. It is an important source of drinking water, but now a days, it is polluted in most areas due to increased human population, growth of industrial activities, dumping of industrial waste, improper disposal of garbage, use of fertilizers in agriculture and man made activities.² Physical, chemical and biological characteristics determine the quality of water. Hence, it becomes essential to ensure the quality of groundwater to utilize it for various purposes.

The domestic, agricultural activities mostly depend on the groundwater in majority areas, and hence it is known to the importance of groundwater quality.^3-5 The quality of water and its environment is subjective to the geologic formation of an area and mostly, the groundwater contains more mineral contents than the surface water. It is for this reason that the groundwater movement is slow and hence,longer contacts time with the sediments and the hydrologic conditions have a significant role⁶ in the change of groundwater quality over a period.

The monitoring of water quality is one of the major tools for sustainable development and provides important information for water management.⁷ The quality of water is vital concern for humanity since it is directly linked with human welfare. Therefore, monitoring the quality of water is one of the essential issues of drinking water management.⁸ The quality of underground water in Srikurmam, Gara Mandal of Srikakulam District, Andhra Pradesh is observed closely and continously at periodic interval. Thus, in this research work an attempt has been made to assess the physical and chemical parameters of ground water at Srikurmam.

EXPERIMENTAL

Study area

Srikurmam village is located approximately 13 kilometers east of Srikakulam town near Bay of Bengal and is in the Gara Mandal of Srikakulam District, Andhra Pradesh, India. Srikurmam is located at latitude of 18° 16' N, longitude of 84° 1' E and an altitude of 17 meters (59 feet).

Water sampling

The groundwater samples are collected as per the standard manner⁴ in the month of June 2011, July 2012, July 2013 and of May 2014.After each sample is collected, 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 Litres plastic bottles that were washed and double rinsed with distilled water before sampling. The list of sample collection places in Srikurmam is given in the Table 1.

Table 1: List of sample collection sites

Sample no.	Location of sample	Source
1	Brahmin Street	Bore Water
2	Kurmanatha Temple opposite	Bore Water
3	Vyshnavi Street	Bore Water
4	Near Bus Stand	Bore Water
5	Secondary Government School	Bore Water
6	Karnala Street	Bore Water
7	Karnala Street	Well Water
8	Kandra Street	Bore Water
9	Market Street	Bore Water
10	Devara Street	Bore Water
11	Segidipeta	Bore Water
12	Indiranagar colony	Bore Water
13	Velama Street	Well Water
14	Panchayati office	Well Water
15	Bankers colony(Pratap house)	Bore Water

Instruments used

The following instruments are used to analyze various constituents present in ground water samples. Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (AAS) (PerkinElmer 400),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.

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 and, water without carbon dioxide is used when required. The following solutions are used for analysis and wherever standard solutions are required, for this the standardization methods⁹ are followed.The  following list of chemicals are used in this research work such as 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,APDC (Ammonium 1- pyrolidiene dicarbomate), MIBK (Methyl Isobutyl ketone) and concentrated HNO₃, Hypo, 10 % BaCl₂, 10% KI , 1000 ppm  of fluoride and Nitrite solution, stock phenol solution, 4-aminoantipyrine, Potassium ferricyanine, chloroform, Borax buffer, 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.

Procedure of assessment of various constituents in water

For estimation of various constituents present in the groundwater like pH, Electrical Conductivity(EC), Turbidity, Total Dissolved Solids(TDS), Alkalinity, Total Hardness(TH), Ca and Mg Hardness, Fluoride(F^-), Chloride(Cl^-), Nitrite(NO₂^-), Sulphate, Phosphate, Phenol &metals like Sodium(Na), Potassium(K), Iron(Fe), Zinc(Zn), Cadmium(Cd), Nickel(Ni), Cobalt(Co) and Lead(Pb) are estimated  by following standard methods ¹⁰.

Results and Discussion 

Based on the results obtained in Periodic interval [Table 2, 3 and 3(a)] the analyzed parameters are compared with the values of WHO¹¹ and BIS¹² to know the quality of water. In all periodic intervals (June 2011, July 2012, July 2013 and in the month of May 2014) all the parameters are analysed and compared. It is identified that they maintains almost nearer values in the respective interval times.Many parameters do not match desired limits of potable parameters as per standard guidelines of WHO¹¹and BIS.¹² From the obtainedvalues, graphs (Figure1, 2, 3 and 4) are drawn for some of the parameters with their desirable limits for its comparison.  

Figure 1: Plot of Hardness Vs samples Click here to View figure

 

Figure 2: Plot of Total Dissolved Solids Vs samples Click here to View figure

 

Figure 3: Plot of Calcium content Vs samples Click here to View figure

 

Figure 4: Plot of Magnesium content Vs samples Click here to View figure

 

Table 2: Values of various constituents present in the water samples (June 2011 & 2012) Click here to View table

 

Table 3: Values of various constituents present in the water samples (June 2013 & 2014) Click here to View table

 

Table 3(a): Values of metal constituents present in the water samples in the seasons of years of 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014.: Click here to View table

 
Here the Water Quality Index (WQI)¹³ values has been calculated and reported based on the results obtained in the samples for the year 2014 to evaluate the suitability of ground water quality for potable purpose.The same procedure was also implemented to the samples that are collected in the years 2011, 2012 and 2013. For calculation of WQI, the following four steps have been  taken into account. In the first step, each of the nine analyzed parameters has been assigned a weight (wi) according to its relative importance in the overall quality of water for drinking purposesTable4. In the second step, the relative weight (Wi) is calculated as per the established^13-15 method as follows.

Table 4: Chemical Parameters, weight (wi), WHO Standards and calculated weight (Wi) for each Parameter

S.No	Chemical Parameter	Weight(wi)	WHO Standards (Si)	Relative weights (Wi)
1	TDS	5	500	0.16666
2	Total Hardness	5	300	0.16666
3	Chloride	4	250	0.13333
4	sulphate	3	250	0.1
5	Calcium	2	75	0.06666
6	Magnesium	2	50	0.06666
7	Fluoride	4	1.5	0.13333
8	Sodium	4	200	0.13333
9	Pottasium	1	12	0.03333
		∑wi = 30

 
Relative weight Here ‘Wi’ is the relative weight, ‘wi’ is the weight of each parameter and ‘n’ is the number of parameters. In the third step a quality rating scale (Qi) for each parameter is calculated by following equation; Qi = ( Ci/Si) × 100, here ‘Ci‘ is the concentration of each chemical parameter in each water sample in mg/L and ‘Si’ is the standard value according to the Guide lines of WHO¹⁶ per each chemical parameter [Table 4]. In the fourth step the sub index (Sli) of each chemical parameter is estimated by using the equation

Sli = Wi× Qi.

The overall Water Quality Index was calculated by adding together each sub index values of each  water samples as follows;

WQI = Σ Sli.

Based on the results of obtained[Table 5] Water Quality Index from the samples and these values are compared with the standard [Table 5] WQI values^17,18 for human consumption.It clearly indicates that the underground water at research sites in most of the areas in Srikurmam is not fit for drinking purposes without any purification.Therefore, based on the overall results the underground water at Srikurmam in almost all areas is not suitable for drinking.

Table 5: Water quality Index of each ground water sample at Srikurmam

Sample	TDS(Sli)	TH(Sli)	Cl-(Sli)	SO42-(Sli)	Ca2+ (Sli)	Mg2+(Sli)	F-(Sli)	Na+(Sli)	K+(Sli)	WQI
1	82.2	52.05	34.61	19.44	15.55	15.86	2.75	8.06	5.55	236
2	95.2	73.33	36.37	15.92	21.33	23.19	4.62	6.86	4.44	281.2
3	87.53	59.27	30.55	10.56	18.93	17.06	4.35	6.59	4.99	239.8
4	72.4	71.44	33.75	4.2	25.06	18.53	4.08	4.39	2.77	236.6
5	56.5	33.38	21.38	8.04	11.99	9.59	2.75	5.06	4.16	152.8
6	139.83	100.7	55.89	7.08	32.53	28.66	3.55	9.73	7.22	385.2
7	161.46	96.94	50.66	2.64	30.57	28.13	5.33	12.19	7.77	395.6
8	7.5	23.33	9.973	3.12	7.46	6.53	5.42	1.53	2.49	67.35
9	22.9	67.27	35.89	3.68	20.17	20.53	6.75	6.19	3.05	186.4
10	24.4	34.55	9.49	11.28	9.42	11.33	7.19	1.59	2.22	111.4
11	21.23	28.5	9.49	10.76	9.95	7.33	4.79	1.53	3.05	96.63
12	79.83	85.55	40.85	9.68	25.24	26.39	7.46	4.73	3.88	283.6
13	39.63	58.16	37.7	14.8	17.95	17.19	4.26	4.39	3.05	197.1
14	22.96	27.72	12.26	11.76	9.42	7.46	4.62	1.19	1.94	99.33
15	24.1	50.94	20.42	12.2	12.35	18.13	7.02	3.39	2.22	150.7

Standard WQI values for water to human consumption
WQI  Range		Type of Water
< 50		Excellent Water
50.1 - 100		Good Water
100.1- 200		Poor Water
200.1 - 300		Very Poor Water
> 300.1		Unfit for Water

Further, an attempt is made to know the possibility of removal of hardness from the samples by using a conventional method such as boiling. It is not helpful in any manner.This clearly indicates that the rate of decreasing of hardness is very less in the chosen samples and the underground water in Srikurmam has a characteristic property of more permanent hardness than temporary hardness. In addition,one more attempt is made to remove the excess amounts from the various constituents present in the water; the water is subjected to Reverse Osmosis (RO) process. After treatment by RO, the treated water samples are analyzed and the results obtained clearly indicate that maximum excess amounts are eliminated by RO technique; it indicates that the water in Srikurmam is treated to make it suitable for drinking. Hence, the overall results indicate that the water at Srikurmam is not fit for drinking without using an established purification method.

After thorough observations of the study area and physical chemical analysis of groundwater samples at Srikurmam, the causes of contamination of the ground water may be either because of seepage of sewage and sullage or of natural geological conditions. In addition to this, the waste water from different sources such as kitchens, septic tanks and cesspits is discharged in to drainage canals. Unfortunately, the drainage canals are not properly constructed and maintained. As a result, there is an every possibility of seepage of sewage and sullage to the ground water and it will pollute the underground water in the areas under study.

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