Assessment of groundwater quality using GIS in Thane Municipal Corporation, Maharashtra, India

Abstract

In this paper, the groundwater quality of the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) area of Maharashtra state, India was assessed for drinking and industrial purposes as per the standards recommended by WHO (2017) and BIS (2012)). In the February 2019, using Random sampling method 25 water samples were collected from different parts of the TMC area. Using these ground water samples various parameters were analysed such as Power of Hydrogen (pH), Electrical Conductivity (EC), Total Hardness (TH), Calcium (Ca2+), Magnesium (Mg2+), Potassium (K+), Chloride (Cl) and Lithium (Li). The pH and EC were determined by Digital pH meter and conductometer respectively. The Cl− was assessed by non-instrumental experiment (Mohr’s method) and the rest of the parameters were analysed by ELICO CL378 flame photometer. With the help of Geographical Information System (GIS), spatial distributions of groundwater quality parameters were mapped. The results indicated that, the ionic dominance for cations and anions were Cl− > Ca2+ > Mg2+ > K+ > Li+. TH and EC showed higher concentrations near the Thane creek and artificial rills compare to forest and construction zones. This infers that anthropogenic activities have greater influence than the natural process (water–rock interaction). Overall study reveals that water quality is good for industrial use in the zone surrounding to Thane creek but unsuitable for drinking. However, 86% of the samples in the study area showed good to excellent water quality for drinking purposes.