Abstract
To evaluate the mercury sources and its transportation mechanism from a global hotspot region (the Ganga Alluvial Plain, northern India), two sets of time-series samples of shallow groundwater (n = 31) and river water (n = 31) were collected in alternate days, from the Behta River Basin, in July and August 2019. The estimation of total dissolved mercury was performed by using the Flow Injection Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy-Mercury Hydride System. The mercury concentrations ranged high (> 1400 ng/L), in the three orders of magnitude, emphasizing the importance of mercury transportation, through the unconfined alluvial aquifer system, linked with the monsoon precipitation. In July, the accumulative intensity of monsoon precipitation favored the increasing mercury concentrations in the river water, as well as, in the groundwater. The infiltration of mercury contaminated water is the prominent hydrological process accountable for the peaked mercury concentration (above the World Health Organization’s drinking water standard of 1000 ng/L) in the river basin. In August, about 67% of the collected samples reported base-level mercury concentrations. Temporal variations of mercury concentration in the groundwater and the river water showed significantly higher values in July, than in August. These results illustrate the importance of the interaction between the monsoon precipitation, and anthropogenic mercury, in the river basin, for the riverine and groundwater mercury transportation as the fundamental hydraulic control. The present study underscores the significance of monsoon precipitation on the groundwater transportation of global mercury cycling by the Ganga River.
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source: CPCB, 2002]
source of drinking water
source and Fig. 2(a) for the sample location
source and Fig. 2(a) for the sample location
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Acknowledgements
We greatly acknowledge Prof. Indra Bir Singh (University of Lucknow, Lucknow) for his motivation and Dr. Anjali Singh (Mohanlal Sukhadia University, Udaipur) for fruitful discussions at various stages of the present research work. In addition, we thank the field staff of the Amausi Meteorological Center, Lucknow, for their rainfall data collection efforts. We were also benefited from fellow participants during the presentation of this paper in the International Conference on Energy and Environmental Technologies for Sustainable Development (CHEM-CONFLUX 20) at Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, Allahabad, India. This paper is a part of first author VD’s Ph. D. thesis.
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VD and MS originated the idea, reviewed literature. MS and SS conceptualized the present mercury research. VD, MMA, JKY and GU contributed to field work, water sampling and analytical methods including mercury analysis. VD, MS, DKJ and SS designed research, drafted and finalized the manuscript. RK and AR contributed to data analysis and manuscript compilation.
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Devi, V., Atique, M.M., Raju, A. et al. Mercury transportation dynamics in the Ganga Alluvial Plain, India: rainwater–groundwater–river water interaction study from hotspot region. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 19, 4891–4900 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-021-03334-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-021-03334-x