Abstract
Clean, safe and acceptable fresh water is fundamental to the existence of life. There is still a serious problem with adequate availability of fresh and quality of water for human consumption. This study, therefore, assesses the relevance of groundwater in the selected sites of villages of Palakonda mandal in the Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh, India, for consumption, based on different indices of water quality. Groundwater is the principal source for domestic and irrigation purposes in this region. In order to assess the quality of groundwater, 39 groundwater samples were collected during pre- and post-monsoon season from 2013 to 2016. The concentrations of physicochemical parameters such as pH, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids, total hardness (TH), Ca(II), Mg(II), fluoride (F−), chloride (Cl−), dissolved oxygen, total alkalinity and nitrite (NO2−) were analyzed to compute Water Quality Index (WQI). The results of the concentrations were interpreted and compared with WHO (2012) and BIS (2012) standards. Correlation between various parameters was also computed, and the results were presented. The results of WQI computation infer that the groundwater of the selected sites in Palakonda mandal is rated as ‘good’ for human consumption.
Highlights
Water is an imperative asset on earth
Inability to limit consumption can bring about the defilement of drinking water and an antagonistic impact on its taste and the appearance (Singh and Hussian 2016)
The hydrogen ion concentration ranges in Palakonda mandal from 6.18 to 7.32 with an arithmetic mean value of 6.76 in pre-monsoon and 6.25–7.7 with a mean value of 6.87 during the postmonsoon season, which is within the WHO (WHO 2012) guidelines (6.5–8.5) for drinking water
Summary
Water is an imperative asset on earth. All life as well as human being relies upon water. Water has numerous applications for living beings (Morhit and Mouhir 2014). Being a sustainable natural resource, groundwater is the most important and biggest reserve of potable for the human populace (Madhav et al 2018). Safe potable is not solely an elementary demand of all living organisms, conjointly a human right (Jackson et al 2001). Approximately 33% of the human populace utilize the groundwater for potable (Kumar et al 2018). Groundwater is favored over surface water as a result
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