Abstract
Quality of water, along Mandal headquarters of a coastal district of Andhra Pradesh, India, was assessed prior to and past rainfall season to determine water's acceptability for consumption using water quality index (WQI). The present work involved collecting groundwater samples from Mandal headquarters' locations present in the entire district. All the samples were analysed in a comprehensive way for ten physicochemical parameters, including pH, magnesium, calcium, chloride, sulphate, nitrates, total dissolved solids, fluoride, potassium, and sodium. The geographical information system was used for mapping sampling sites. The coordinates of sample collection areas were recorded employing GPS. Correlation matrices for cation–anion were illustrated and from the qualitative results of the samples. Results indicate that WQI prior and past-rainfall seasons ranged from 37.53 to 312.46; 42.04 to 211.89 in 2016, while for 2017, these were in the range of 25.01 to 137.06; 30.06 to 228.83. The present study's WQI values indicate that the water samples possess poor quality, and no fluoride contaminations were observed. The analysis suggests appropriate treatment of sub-surface water from the study site before consumption.
Highlights
Among the sources of water available, the source catering to the needs of water for consumption, agricultural activities, and industrial drives in semi-arid and arid zones of several nations is groundwater
Many groundwater suitability studies have been carried out across the globe and presented that evaporation and interaction among water and rock are the primary sources for contamination of groundwater precisely in North-eastern Tunisia (Dişli 2017)
Thirty-eight Mandal Head Quarters of Srikakulam District in A.P were included from where samples were collected for analysis carried out at Environmental science laboratory of GITAM Institute of Science, GITAM (Deemed to be University), and Visakhapatnam using standard methods given by APHA
Summary
Among the sources of water available, the source catering to the needs of water for consumption, agricultural activities, and industrial drives in semi-arid and arid zones of several nations is groundwater. Nearly 65% caters to consumption, 20% is used for livestock and irrigation, while for industries and mining activities, 15% is used (Taloor et al 2021; Gautam et al 2017; Falkenmark and Rockström 2006), about one-third of the population across the globe is dependent on groundwater for consumption It is understood that the hydrochemistry of groundwater in semi-arid zones is governed by factors such as geology, hydrogeology, precipitation, evaporation, interactions among rock and water, dissolution of minerals, the process of weathering, chemical fertilizers from cultivation, industrial effluents, and several anthropogenic activities (Karunanidhi et al 2021; Adimalla 2021). It was reported that evaporation of groundwater tends to influence
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