Groundwater Quality and Contamination

Abstract

Besides quantity of water, quality is very much important for human use. Beyond the permissible limit, the water is considered as polluted. Direct pollutions are bacterial, organic, heavy metal, seepage, discharge of salt and chemical. Indirect pollutions are nitrogen monoxide in atmosphere and fluoride and arsenic pollution in the water in different parts of India. Groundwater is used for domestic, municipal and other purposes. The groundwater within the dug wells may be polluted with the contaminants from shallow depths. Hence, hand pump water from deeper depths is preferred for drinking purposes. Nowadays, use of groundwater is increasing day by day due to high carrying cost of surface water. In industry, also deep tube well groundwater is preferred due to its purity. The quality of water is measured by the amount of TDS (total dissolved solids). This amount must be controlled by different treatments depending upon the use. Groundwater may be contaminated by different sources, i.e. municipal and domestic sources, agriculture sources and industrial sources. It is very difficult to purify the polluted water; hence, remedial measures must be taken to prevent the contamination. For example, pollution may be restricted by selecting proper dumping site which is underlain by impermeable formation.