INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES Volume 2, No 2, Copyright 2010 All rights reserved Integrated Publishing Association

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1 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES Volume 2, No 2, 2011 Copyright 2010 All rights reserved Integrated Publishing Association Research article ISSN Assessment of drinking water quality: A case study of Ambala cantonment area, Haryana, India Chadetrik Rout 1, Arabinda Sharma 2 1 Civil Engineering Department, MM University, Mullana, Ambala , Haryana, India 2 Civil Engineering Department, BRCM College of Engineering & Technology, Bahal , Bhiwani, Haryana, India chadetrikrout@gmailcom, arbind_78@rediffmailcom doi:106088/ijes ABSTRACT Water is a vital resource for human survival In the present study, the physico-chemical characteristics of groundwater of Ambala Cantonment area were assessed for its suitability for drinking purposes A total of 26 water samples were collected from deep aquifer based tube wells from different parts of Ambala Cantonment area In order to assess the ground water quality, the water samples were analyzed for different physico-chemical properties, eg, ph, electrical conductivity (EC), total dissolved solids (TDS), calcium, magnesium, total harness (TH), sodium, potassium, carbonate, bicarbonate, total alkalinity (TA), chloride, fluoride and sulphate concentrations The results were compared with the standards prescribed by World Health Organization (WHO) and Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS) All the physio-chemical parameters were found to be in the prescribed permissible limit The correlation matrix was also calculated for different parameters of drinking water From the ph values it is clear that the ground water of the study area is alkaline in nature and the total hardness varies in between mg/l, which indicates that water in the deep aquifer is moderately hard Hence it is suggested to the cantonment localities to soften the tube well water before consumption Keywords: Drinking water, fluoride, de-ionized water, WHO, BIS, Physico-chemical 1 Introduction Water covers 78% of the earth s surface, yet water available for human use is limited Groundwater is the primary source of drinking water for more than 98% of the populations in Haryana, India Being a basic need of human development, health and wellbeing, safe drinking water is an internationally accepted human right (WHO, 2001), which has been enlisted as one of the ten targets in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) As a decentralized source of drinking water and myriads of other services for millions of rural and urban families, groundwater as a natural resource plays a crucial role which, accounts for nearly 80 per cent of the rural domestic water needs, and 50 per cent of the urban water needs in India (Kumar et al, 2005) Groundwater pollution unlike others is very critical, as once an aquifer becomes polluted, it is very difficult, expensive and time consuming affair to clean it up and may remain unusable for decades Haryana is one of the Indian states where endemic fluorosis has been reported as an alarming health problem The groundwater quality has been investigated in some part of Haryana including Hisar (Kaushik et al, 2002; Khaiwal and Garg 2006), Jind region (Mor et al, 2003; Meenakshi et al, 2004), Fridabad and Rohtak (Kaushik et al, 2004) Meenakshi et al, (2004) reported the fluoride content in rural habitations of Jind district between the ranges of 03 and 69 mg/l Therefore, the primary objective of this investigation is to find out the physico-chemical parameters and fluoride (F - ) Received on September 2011 Published on November

2 concentrations in deep tube wells water in order to explore their suitability for human consumption and domestic use by the Ambala Cantonment population Ambala district of Haryana lies between N latitudes and E longitudes Total geographical area of the district is around 1574 km 2 The district area falls in the Yamuna sub-basin of Ganga basin and is mainly drained by three non-perennial streams such as The Markanda & its tributaries, The Dangri (Tangri) & its tributaries and The Ghagghar & its tributaries The ground water exploration revealed the presence of three aquifer groups down to a depth of 450 meters comprising fine to medium grained sand, clay, silt and kankar with occasional gravel The height from the sea level is 900 feet The average gradient of the water table is of the order of 1m/km The overall flow of ground water is from north-east to south-west direction The Cantonment Board has constructed tube wells of varying depths ranging from 175m to 400m for drinking water supply to Ambala Cantonment 2 Materials and Methods 21 Sample Collection Total 25 ground water samples were collected, from deep aquifer based tube wells covering the entire (Ambala cantonment) area, from 25 different locations Water samples were collected directly from the tube wells after running the water for about 3-5 minutes All the samples were collected on 2 nd October, 6 th November and 4 th December, 2010 Water samples were collected in precleaned, sterilized, polyethylene bottles of one liter capacity The first sample was collected from the tube well of Khukhrain Bhawan, Opp Subhash park and the last sampling was done from the tube well of Anaj Mandi, Ambala Cantonment 22 Analytical methods The water samples were analyzed at the Department of Civil Engineering in Environmental Engineering Laboratory (MM University, Mullana) The water samples were analyzed for ph, electrical conductivity (EC), dissolved solids (TDS), total calcium (Ca 2+ ), magnesium (Mg 2+ ), total hardness (TH), sodium (Na + ), potassium (K + ), total alkalinity (TA), chloride (Cl - ), fluoride (F - ) and Sulphate (SO 4 2- ) All the reagents used in the present study were of analytical reagent grade and de-ionized water was used for experimental purpose All the precautions were taken as given in APHA, AWWA, WPCF (2003), for sampling and analysis The details of the sampling sites and results are presented in Table 1, Table 2 and Table 3 Sample No Table 1 : Sampling locations of Ambala Cantonment area Sampling Locations Approx Depth (feets) 1 Khukhrain Bhawan, Opp Subhash park PWD (B&R) Satadium Ambedkar Park Tubewell Main W/W T/W No Age (Years) as on Dec,

3 6 Rangia Mandi Shastri Colony Hathi Khana Mandir Dushahra Ground Dina Ki Mandi Subhash Park Near Tool Room Housing Board Colony Aggarsain Nagar Rani Bagh Arya Nagar Ajit Nagar Matidas Nagar Golden Park Dr Anita Bhushan MC Colony Near Civil Hosp Indira Park PWD Rest House BI Bazar, Lalkurti Anaj Mandi Table 2: Values and concentration of various water parameters in groundwater samples of Ambala Cantonment (Continued) Sample No ph EC TDS Ca 2+ Mg 2+ TH Na

4 Minimum Maximum * Units of all the parameters are in mg/l except EC (µs cm -1 ) and ph Table 2: Values and concentration of various water parameters in groundwater samples of Ambala Cantonment (Continued) Sample No ph EC TDS Ca 2+ Mg 2+ TH Na Table 2: Values and concentration of various water parameters in groundwater samples of Ambala Cantonment (Continued) Sample No K + CO 3 HCO 3 TA Cl F SO

5 Table 2: Values and concentration of various water parameters in groundwater samples of Ambala Cantonment (Continued) Minimu m Maxim um K + CO 3 HCO 3 TA Cl F SO

6 Table 3: Comparison of water quality parameters of groundwater of Ambala Cantonment area with drinking water quality standard (Indian and WHO) Parameters Range of samples Minimum Maximum BIS Standards Acceptable limit Maximum limit WHO Limit ph EC TDS TA TH Na K Ca Mg CO 3 HCO Cl F SO *Units of all the parameter are in mg/l except EC (µs cm -1 ) and ph There is some inter-dependence between the physico-chemical parameters; they may be related by the method of least square principal While keeping parameters as independent variable (X), remaining parameters are treated as dependent variables (Y) and they can be related as given below Y = AX + B (1) Where A and B are constants Values of A and B can be calculated with the help of following equations A XY XSY X XSX 2 (2) B Y AX (3) The degree of fitness of the equation is determined by the factor, correlation coefficient (r) And the correlation coefficient (r) between the variables X and Y is given by the well known relation 938

7 XY X Y r (4) 2 2 [( X X X) ( Y Y Y) The correlation coefficient (r) will have a value from -1 to 1 Negative sign represents that the two variables do not have similar trend of variation where as positive value represent similar tend More will be the accuracy of fitness if r is more close to unity Zero values means there is no relationship between X and Y and both are independent to each other 3 Results and Discussion 31 Hydrogen Ion Activity (ph) ph is a term used to express the intensity of acidic or alkaline conditions It is the expression of hydrogen ion concentration, more precisely, the hydrogen ion activity ph is an important parameter in assessing the water quality Acidic conditions will prevail as ph value decreases and alkaline conditions will prevail as the ph value increases The BIS limit for drinking water is shown in Table 3 ph value in analyzed water samples varied from 692 to 812 The low ph does not cause any harmful effect (Boominathan and Khan, 1994) The results show that all the water samples were within permissible limits 32 Electrical Conductivity (EC) The ability of a solution to conduct an electrical current is governed by the migration of solutions and is dependent on the nature and numbers of the ionic species in that solution This property is called electrical conductivity It is a useful tool to assess the purity of water The permissible limit for electrical conductivity (EC) is 300 µs cm -1 EC of the collected samples ranged from 220 to 770 µs cm Total Dissolve Salts (TDS) The electrical conductivity of water samples correlates with the concentration of dissolved minerals or with what is commonly known as the total dissolved salts of water samples The acceptable range of TDS is 500 mg/l The range of TDS of analyzed water samples varied between to mg/l as shown in Table 2 The highest TDS value was observed at location no 15 All the water sample are non-saline as per the salinity classification (Table 4) suggested by Robinove et al (1958) So, it can be concluded that in case of non-availability of any other water-source, groundwater of studied areas is suitable for drinking purposes from salinity point of view Table 4: Classification of groundwater on the basis of salinity values (Robinove et al, 1958) TDS (ppm) Description No of Samples <1000 Non-Saline Slightly saline ,000 Moderately Saline 0 > 10,000 Very Saline 0 Total Calcium (Ca 2+ ) and Magnesium (Mg 2+ ) 939

8 The calcium and magnesium are the most abundant elements in the groundwater Calcium may dissolve readily from carbonate rocks and lime stones or be leached from soils However, dissolved Mg 2+ concentration is lower than Ca 2+ in the groundwater Other sources include primarily industrial and municipal discharges Calcium is an essential nutritional element for human being and aids in maintaining the structure of plant cells and soils Mg 2+ is a constituent of bones and is essential for normal metabolism of Ca 2+ Its deficiency may lead to protein energy malnutrition The acceptable limits of Ca 2+ and Mg 2+ are 75 mg/l and 30 mg/l respectively The estimated Ca 2+ content from collected water samples ranged from 1871 to 8225 mg/l and Mg 2+ concentration ranged from 1034 to 2898 mg/l as shown in Table 2 Around 12% of water samples showed Ca 2+ concentration above the acceptable limit while in case of Mg 2+, all samples were below the acceptable limit Higher concentration of Ca 2+ and Mg 2+ were observed at location no 24 and 16 respectively 35 Total Hardness (TH) In groundwater hardness is mainly contributed by bicarbonates, carbonates, sulphates and chlorides of calcium and magnesium So, the principal hardness causing ions are calcium and magnesium The acceptable limit of total hardness is 200 mg/l The hardness of analyzed water samples varied from 1166 to 1294 mg/l as CaCO 3 The highest value of total hardness was observed at location no 14, as shown in Table 2 In ground water, in case of nonavailability of alternate water source, Ca 2+ and Mg 2+ upto 200mg/l and 400mg/l respectively, can be accepted (Ministry of Rural Development, India) If these components are present in high concentration, than this leads to encrustation in water supply structure and adversely affect use of water Durfor and Becker (1964) have classified water as soft, moderate, hard and very hard as given in Table 5 As per this classification most of the samples comes under moderate to hard category On the basis of this classification it has been observed that no water samples are soft, 23% are moderately hard, 73% are hard in nature Table 5: Classification of water on the basis of total hardness (Durfor and Becker, 1964) Total Hardness (mg/l) Nature of water 0-60 Soft Moderate Hard >181 Very 36 Sodium (Na + ) and Potassium (K + ) Practically all sodium compounds are water soluble and tend to remain in aqueous solution Water in contact with igneous rocks will dissolve sodium from its natural source Higher concentration of Na + ion in drinking water may cause heart problems Higher Na + ion in irrigation water may cause salinity problems Excessive amount of Na + ion in groundwater normally affects the palatability of water The permissible limit of sodium in drinking water as prescribed by BIS is 50 mg/l The range of Na + ions in water samples varied from a minimum of 525 to 3549 mg/l (concentration in excess of 200 mg/l give rise to unacceptable 940

9 taste) At room temperature, the average tastes thresh Guideline sodium is about 200 mg/l No health base guideline values have been derived (WHO, 2006) On comparison with BIS standards, Na + concentration of all samples was found to be within the permissible limit Potassium is an important cation and plays a vital role in intermediately metabolism K + is an essential nutrient for both plant and human life However ingestion of excessive amounts may prove detrimental to human beings The K + concentration of analyzed water samples varied from 135 to 315 mg/l as shown in Table 2 37 Carbonate (CO 3 ) and Bicarbonate (HCO 3 ) Carbonates and Bicarbonates in water are present mainly in association with Ca 2+ and Mg 2+ The acceptable limit of CO 3 and HCO 3 is 75 mg/l and 30 mg/l respectively The carbonate content of analyzed water samples varied from 359 mg/l to 1268 mg/l and HCO 3 content varied from mg/l to mg/l as shown in Table 2 38 Total Alkalinity (TA) Alkalinity of water is its acid neutralizing capacity The alkalinity of groundwater is mainly due to carbonates and bicarbonates The acceptable limit of alkalinity is 200 mg/l and in the absence of alternate water source, alkalinity upto 600 mg/l is acceptable for drinking The phenolphthalein alkalinity of most of the water samples is zero but the total alkalinity of analyzed water samples varied from 9083 to 18770mg/l as given in Table 2 Total alkalinity of all samples was below the permissible limit It is itself not harmful to human being (Pande and Sharma, 1999) 39 Chloride (Cl - ) Chloride is an anion found in variable amount in groundwater Chloride may present naturally in groundwater and may also originate from diverse sources such as weathering, leaching of sedimentary rocks and infiltration of seawater etc The maximum permissible limit of chloride in potable water is 250 mg/l It produces salty taste at 250mg/l to 500mg/l (Trivedy and Goel, 1984) In the analyzed water samples, the concentration of chloride varied from 783 to 5780 mg/l The chloride content of the water sample when compared with BIS standard then it was found that all samples showed concentration within the permissible limit The maximum Cl concentration was observed at location no 24, as shown in Table Fluoride (F - ) The sources of fluorides are mainly, industries of iron, steel production, petroleum refining and phosphate fertilizer Higher concentration of fluoride causes bone and dental fluorosis The BIS permissible limit for fluoride in groundwater is 1mg/l as given in Table 3 However, in temperate region this limit is 15 mg/l, where, water intake is low Fluoride (F - ) varied from permissible limit for F concentration is 1-15 mg/l according to WHO (2003) Fluoride concentration less than 08 mg/l leads to dental caries Hence it is essential to maintain fluoride concentration between 08 to 10 mg/l in drinking water The concentration of fluoride in groundwater samples varied from 014 to 90 mg/l as shown in Table 2 Fluoride concentration in all these samples found to be well within permissible limit Khaiwal and Garg (2006) reported relatively high ranges of fluoride contamination, ie, mg l-1 in groundwater of Hisar region of Haryana 941

10 311 Sulphate (SO 4 ) Sulphur in groundwater is normally present in sulphate form Sulphate may enter into groundwater through weathering of sulphide bearing deposits The acceptable limit of sulphate is 200 mg/l The sulphate content in analyzed water samples varied from 3233 to mg/l as shown in Table 2 All the samples found to be well within permissible limit However the physico-chemical parameter of water varies from place to place of the world Meenakshi et al (2004) reported high concentrations of fluoride (up to 46 mg/l) in villages of Haryana) in ground water Habuda-Stanic et al (2007) reported high concentrations of iron, manganese, ammonia, organic substances and arsenic, in eastern Croatia Singandhupe et al (2006) reported the overall quality of irrigation water was good and was suitable for irrigation as well as domestic use in Hirakud command area of Orissa, India Similar study in Kohdasht city of Lorestan, Iran showed water quality parameters were within the permissible limits of the WHO (Jafari et al, 2008) Karavoltsos et al (2008) also reported sodium, fluoride, sulphate, nitrate and conductivity were lower than the upper limits by 2 of the total number of samples analyzed in Greece Similar results were reported by Akpoveta et al (2011) from borehole water in Benin University, Benin, Nigeria and found within WHO limit Islam et al (2003) reported ph, EC,TDS, Ca, Mg, Na, K, HCO 3-,Cl -, As, SO 4 2-, NO 3-,Fe3 +, Zn 2+, Mn 2+, Cu 2+, P 5+ and B 3+ in ground water in different aquifers of Khagrachari, Bangladesh found some were within and beyond the safe limit The water quality varies depend on type of soil, climate and human activities Compare to other studies in another part of the world this water has good property for drinking Study in Ghana, Africa showed low ph in some ground water sources (Akoto and Adiyiah, 2007) Venkat Kumar et al, (2011) reported the cations and anions of underground water of Tiruchirapalli city, India were above the maximum, desirable for human consumption Luckily, with reference to analyzed parameters during this research, all harmful components for human health were in a good state 312 Correlation analysis Correlation matrix was prepared to find out the relation between different parameters are presented in Table 6 The highest correlation is observed between total dissolved solids and electrical conductivity (09998) There is also positive correlation of total hardness and calcium (0404), the total alkalinity and bicarbonate (r = 0194), electrical conductivity & total dissolved solids with sodium (r =0 489 and r =0491) and some extent to magnesium (r = and r =0309) Table 6: Correlation Matrix of various physico-chemical parameters ph 1 ph EC TDS Ca 2+ Mg 2+ TH Na + EC TDS Ca Mg TH Na

11 K CO 3 HCO TA Cl F SO Table 6: Correlation Matrix of various physico-chemical parameters ( continued) K + CO 3 HCO 3 TA Cl F SO 4 ph EC TDS Ca 2+ Mg 2+ TH Na + K + 1 CO 3 HCO TA Cl F SO Conclusion In this study characterization of the physiochemical parameters of groundwater from twenty five tube wells at different locations in Ambala Cantonment area was carried out To assess the quality of ground water each parameter was compared with the standard desirable limits prescribed by World health organization (WHO) and Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS) From the study it can be concluded that groundwater is safe for drinking purposes from the point of view of levels of ph, EC, TDS, Ca 2+, Mg 2+, Na +, K +, CO 3, HCO 3, TA, Cl, F and SO 4 But the total hardness varied in between mg/l, which indicates that water in the deep aquifer is moderately hard So, it is suggested to the cantonment localities to soften the tube well water before consumption Further research to carry out detailed mapping and hydrological studies for existing water sources to show flow lines and hydro-geochemical survey in that area It is also necessary to find out the source of contaminants which is due to soil types, industrialization, water chemistry and other human activities 943

12 5 References 1 Akoto O and Adiyiah, J, (2007), Chemical analysis of drinking water from some communities in the Brong Ahafo region", International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology, 4(2), pp Akpoveta OV, Okoh, BE, Osakwe, SA, (2011), "Quality assessment of borehole water used in the vicinities of Benin, Edo State and Agbor, Delta State of Nigeria", Current Research in Chemistry, 3, pp APHA, AWWA, WPCF, (2003), "Standard Methods for Examination of Water and Wastewater", 20th Edition, American Public Health Association, Washington, DC 4 Boominathan, R and Khan, SM, (1994), "Effect of distillery effluents on ph, dissolved oxygen and phosphate content in Uyyakundan channel water", Envionmental Ecology, 12 (4), pp Durfor, CN and Becker, E, (1964) "Public water supplies of the 100 largest cities in the United States", In Geological Survey Water-Supply, US Government Printing Office, Washington, Paper No 1812, pp Islam, MJ, Uddin, SMH, Zaman, MW, Mahmood, RI, Rahman, MS, (2003), "Toxicity assessment of ground water in different aquifers of Khagrachari in Bangladesh", Asian Journal of Plant Science, 2, pp Jafari, A, Mirhossaini, H, Kamareii, B, Dehestani, S, (2008), "Physicochemical analysis of drinking water in kohdasht city lorestan, Iran", Asian Journal of Applied Science, 1, pp Kaushik, A, Kumar, K, Kanchan, Taruna, Sharma, HR, (2002), "Water quality index and suitability assessment of urban ground water of Hisar and Panipat in Haryana", Journal of Environmental Biology, 23, pp Kaushik, A, Kumar, K, Sharma, IS, Sharma, HR, (2004), "Groundwater quality assessment in different land-use areas of Faridabad and Rohtak cities of Haryana using deviation index", Journal of Environmental Biology, 25(2), pp Khaiwal, R and Garg, VK, (2006), "Distribution of fluoride in groundwater and its suitability assessment for drinking purposes", International Journal of Environmental Health Research, 16, pp Kumar R, Singh, RD, Sharma, KD, (2005), "Water Resources of India, Current Science, 89(5), pp Meenakshi, Garg, VK, Kavita, Renuka, Malik, A, (2004), "Groundwater quality in some villages of Haryana, India: focus on fluoride and fluorosis", Journal of Hazardous Material, 106B, pp

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