Abstract
The present study proposes a new approach for indexing heavy metals ions to examine groundwater quality in North Kurdufan Province, Sudan. The new approach is developed based on the most frequently used methods for indexing heavy metals pollution in water. It is created in order to avoid the weaknesses of the current indexing systems. As per the new indexing approach, heavy metal contamination in water samples is evaluated by two types of indices: the negative evaluation index (NEI) and positive evaluation index (PEI). The water worthiness is assessed based on a pair of indices, NEI and PEI. Water quality increases with the decrease of PEI and NEI values. NEI indicates the contribution of heavy metals with a concentration not exceeding the highest desirable limit () in the water sample, while vice versa regarding the PEI. If all heavy metals concentrations in the water sample do not exceed , the sum of NEI should be less than zero, but not less than −100, implying that the sum of PEI will be zero. When all heavy metals concentration exceeds , the sum of NEI should be equal to zero, and PEI will be greater than zero. The results of the newly proposed approach have been discussed and compared with the existing indexing methods as regards to the best and worst samples. The spatial distribution of NEI and PEI are in complete agreement with the metals spatial distribution. The comparison result showed that the new index is robust, with fair calculations, and gives the best classification of groundwater quality.
Highlights
Groundwater has the advantage of low transmission cost, which makes it a perfect source for water supply, compared with surface water
We investigate groundwater quality and heavy metals risk based on the proposed modified heavy metal evaluation index (MHEI) in the case study of North Kurdufan
Computed heavy metals pollution indexing methods (HPIs) and MHEI show that all groundwater samples from the boreholes are suitable for human consumption
Summary
Groundwater has the advantage of low transmission cost, which makes it a perfect source for water supply, compared with surface water. Over the last two decades, the use of groundwater primarily for irrigation has increased significantly to meet the agricultural and economic development targets in many areas of Sudan, especially in regions far off the Nile system [1]. These developments were implemented in an unplanned manner, which led to many problems for groundwater sources. Two sources of contaminants are expected to happen, which are considered to be an uncontrolled release These groundwater contaminants sources come from: natural and anthropogenic (or man-made), Int. J. Public Health 2020, 17, 1245; doi:10.3390/ijerph17041245 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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