Appraisal of health risks associated with exposure of fluoride and nitrate contaminated springs in the Doda Kishtwar Ramban (DKR) region of Jammu and Kashmir, India

Abstract

The dearth of drinking water has become a bitter reality and the gap between demand and supply of water has been growing year by year. By keeping the significance of spring water in mind, we have collected 175 spring samples in Doda, Kishtwar Ramban (DKR) region of Jammu and Kashmir, India, and analyzed for power of Hydrogen (pH), Electrical Conductivity (EC), Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Total Hardness (TH), Calcium (Ca2+), Magnesium (Mg2+), Sodium (Na+), Potassium (K+), Bicarbonates (HCO3−), Sulphate (SO42−), Chloride (Cl−), Nitrate (NO3−) and Fluoride (F−). Among the analyzed parameters, Ca2+, Mg2+, K+, HCO3−, SO42− and NO3− exceeded their Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS) limits for drinking water, whereas all the analyzed parameters were found within the permissible limits of the World Health Organization (WHO) for drinking water. Spring water quality index results indicate that 91.43% of the spring samples show excellent to good water quality. The inferences of health risks for nitrate exhibited that their Health Quotient (HQ) mean values were found less than one, signifying no health risks in general however, the maximum value as HQnitrate for adults, children and infants were 4.01, 3.68 and 3.38 respectivley reflectioing problematic situation in certian places. The HQ mean values of fluoride were found greater than one for adults, children and infants due to excess fluoride in certain localities, reflecting health perils. Lastly, we can conclude that in addition to the parameters examined in this study, other forms of pollution (heavy metals, microbial contamination, pesticides) can significantly diminish desirable ecosystem services.