Hydro-geochemical analysis based on entropy and geostatistics model for delineation of anthropogenic ground water pollution for health risks assessment of Dhenkanal district, India.

Abstract

Consumption of poor quality water causes serious human health hazards. Therefore, it is very crucial to investigate factors influencing the quality of groundwater and its suitability for drinking purpose. In the present study, groundwater quality of the Dhenkanal district of Odisha, India was characterized and the spatial distribution of different water quality parameters were analyzed using the multivariate statistics, entropy theory, and geostatistics techniques. In the present study 112 number of groundwater tube well samples were collected from the study area. The entropy theory revealed that SO42-, Mg+2 and Cl- were the most influencing parameters. A similar observation was also observed based on the correlation coefficient analysis. Groundwater quality index (GWQI) and entropy-weighted water quality index (EWQI) classifications indicated that 78.57 and 43.75% of the collected groundwater samples were categorized under excellent water quality, whereas, the rest of the samples were varying from good to medium drinking water quality. In addition, the result of EWQI classification offers more realistic assessment than that of GWQIs owing to its high precision, simplicity and without application of artificial weight. The correlation coefficient between Ca+2 and HCO3-, Mg+2 and PO4- were significantly high which might be due the presence of CaHCO3 and MgPO4 in the groundwater samples. The GWQI revealed a weak spatial dependence of groundwater quality.