Evaluation of Groundwater Quality in Rural Part of Central India with Special Emphasis on Fluoride Concentration

Abstract

Groundwater in many parts of the world has been contaminated with high concentrations of elements like fluoride (F⁻). Hydrogeological investigations have been carried out in rural parts of Wani area of central India in an attempt to assess the quality of groundwater vis-à-vis its suitability for drinking and irrigation purposes. These were accomplished by evaluating the physicochemical parameters obtained from the analysis of 114 groundwater samples collected during the November 2018 period using standard methods. Groundwater in the area is generally hard-to-very-hard type and alkaline in nature. A wide disparity has been shown by total hardness, conductivity, NO₃⁻ and HCO₃⁻ in majority of the samples. The concentration of F⁻ (0.05–2.36 mg/L) is quite alarming in many locations of the area. The groundwater of the area is mainly of CaHCO₃ and mixed CaMgCl types. The US salinity laboratory (USSL) diagram shows that the groundwater is free from sodium hazards, but the salinity hazard varies from low to very high throughout the area. Sodium percentage revealed that 70% of the samples are under a good-to-permissible category. High concentration of NO₃⁻ observed in the samples is mostly due to poor sanitary conditions around the water sources and other anthropogenic activities. Cases of dental fluorosis have been observed in areas where F⁻ concentrations exceed 1 mg/L. High F⁻ concentrations can be attributed to the alkaline nature, semiarid conditions and rock–water interaction process.