GROUND WATER QUALITY INDEX FOR EVALUATION OF GROUNDWATER QUALITY IN WARANGAL, TELANGANA, INDIA

Abstract

Groundwater is a major source of drinking for rural and urban areas, in addition to surface water.
Human and industrial activities are deteriorating the groundwater quantity and quality, which is a serious issue these
days. Analysis of groundwater quality thus attained significance in order to preserve and perfect the eco-system.
Determining the groundwater quality index (GWQI) is an analytical technique which can be adopted to get a clear
picture of extent of groundwater pollution. The present work is aimed at assessing the groundwater quality for the city
of Warangal, Telangana by determining the GWQI. For this purpose, samples of groundwater were collected from 11
different locations spreading across the city, in the month of December, 2018. To calculate the GWQI, the following
12 groundwater quality parameters have been considered: pH, Alkalinity (AL), Total Solids (TS), Hardness, Chlorides
(Cl), Dissolved Oxygen (DO), Fluoride (F), Sodium (Na), Calcium (Ca), Magnesium (Mg), Potassium (K) and
Electrical Conductivity (EC) for both pre monsoon and post monsoon period. Most of the parameters were not found
to be in the desirable range for the purpose of drinking. The GWQI of samples from 11 locations was found to be
ranging from 136.7 to 412.5 during post monsoon period, indicating poor, very poor and unsuitability of groundwater
for drinking purpose. For pre monsoon period, GWQI values were found to be ranging from 85.98 to 295.02
representing that only 3 locations are of good ground water quality and remaining locations are with poor quality.
Also the samples collected during Pre-monsoon were analyzed for Heavy Metal Pollution Index (HPI) and the values
were found to be ranging from 0.07 to 94.48 indicating the traces of heavy metals and its significant effect on ground
water quality.This analysis revealed that, the groundwater in locations from industrial areas is highly contaminated
and found to be unsuitable for drinking. Remaining 75% of samples from the area are also found to be poor in quality
where certain amount of treatment before consumption is must.