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Evaluation of groundwater quality of South Bengal, India

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Abstract

Water that is safe to drink is a basic requirement for good health. Groundwater’s usefulness for drinking and irrigation is widely understood. This research provides a comprehensive analysis of the hydro-chemical properties of groundwater to comprehend the spatiotemporal quality of drinking and irrigation water in South Bengal (India’s West Bengal state), with a study area of 58,713.07 km2. The condition of drinking and irrigation water was examined at fifty-one groundwater stations during a nine-year period from 2011 to 2019. This study uses thirteen chemical parameters to determine the water's appropriateness for drinking and irrigation (Ca, Cl, F, Mg, NO3, pH, K, Na, SO4, TDS, CaCO3, SAR, and MH). The water quality index (WQI) was determined using these characteristics and the suggested threshold specified by the BIS and WHO standards. The combined WQI categories of ‘poor’, ‘very poor’, and ‘not fit for drinking’ water covered 54.9% of the study area, and the SAR, magnesium hazard, and Wilcox diagrams were used to check the robustness of irrigation water. According to Pearson’s correlation, the western and southern parts of South Bengal were found to be unsuitable for irrigation in general. According to the water suitability index (WSI) results, 39.43% of sample stations were classified as excellent, while 32.39% were classified as ‘unsuitable, permissible to uncertain, and doubtful to unsuitable’ for drinking and irrigation. The result of Pearson’s correlation showed that water quality quantified as doubtful to unsuitable for drinking and irrigation was mostly found in the southern coastal districts. The overall condition shows that the northern districts are less affected by sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) and magnesium hazard (MH). The ion domination in drinking water was evaluated through a Piper plot. The ionic composition of the water affects its chemical quality. Thus it is important to analyze the ionic composition to understand the water quality. The dominant anion type was Ca2+, while a few stations had Na+ and K+ dominancy. The dominance of calcium and magnesium in South Bengal is evident from the analysis, categorizing the water as hard water.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography and RM, Mizoram (Central) University, Aizawl, Mizoram, India

    David Durjoy Lal Soren, Jonmenjoy Barman, Kailash Chandra Roy, Suvankar Naskar & Brototi Biswas

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  1. David Durjoy Lal Soren
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  2. Jonmenjoy Barman
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  3. Kailash Chandra Roy
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  4. Suvankar Naskar
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  5. Brototi Biswas
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Contributions

David Durjoy Lal Soren and B Biswas contributed to the data collection and methodological section; Jonmenjoy Barman, Kailash Chandra Roy and Subhankar Naskar contributed to data analysis and thematic layers preparation.

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Correspondence to Brototi Biswas.

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Communicated by Abhijit Mukherjee

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Soren, D.D.L., Barman, J., Roy, K.C. et al. Evaluation of groundwater quality of South Bengal, India. J Earth Syst Sci 132, 130 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-023-02152-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-023-02152-8

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