Improvement of Ground Water Quality Index Using Citrus Limetta Peel Powder

Abstract

In the recent times, the rapid rise in urbanisation complemented with population growth is necessitating much attention for potable water across the world. Due to the unavailability of adequate fresh water resources, Groundwater became the only potable source to majority of places across the world. The dependency on ground water due to scarce fresh water resources is commonly observed in densely populated regions such as India. Due to the persistence of extravagant anthropogenic activities, the quality of the groundwater is observed to be at critical levels in regions such as India. The present study concentrates on a water quality indicator called Ground Water Quality Index (WQI) representing overall water quality based on physico-chemical characteristics of a water sample. As the WQI is quantified based on the weighted average of the physical-chemical concentrations of water quality characteristics, the study considered sixteen parameters to ascertain accurate results. The ground water samples were collected from Kadapa City in Andhra Pradesh, India and physicochemical tests were performed to evaluate WQI. It is observed in the present study that higher values of WQI indicating poor water quality has been found due to excessive concentrations of Hardness, Total dissolved solids, Electrical conductivity, Turbidity, Alkalinity, and Fluorides in the collected water samples. Furthermore, the study proposes Citrus limetta (Sweet lemon) peel powder as a coagulant and the variability of WQI Values with coagulant concentrations are investigated. In addition, sensitivity analysis to examine the impact of coagulant dosage, mixing speed and stirring time on WQI is executed and optimal levels of these conditions resulting in minimum WQI values are found. A comparative study is also accomplished to examine the effect of different proportions of Alum and Citrus limetta combination on WQI. The present study recommends Citrus limetta peel powder as a natural, environmental friendly, locally available, cheap, and effective coagulant to treat Groundwater and to improve water quality status.