Chemical components of the earth crust influence the ground water quality. In addition, anthropogenic
activities also contribute in deteriorating the quality of ground waters and contaminate the water sources.
In present study, 22 water samples were collected from the potable/ground water sources in south
coastal region of Visakhapatnam district, India during pre- and post-monsoon seasons and characterized
for physico-chemical parameters viz., pH, electrical conductivity (EC), total dissolved solids (TDS),
salinity, oxidation reduction potential (ORP), dissolved oxygen (DO), temperature, total hardness
(TH), total alkalinity (TA), bicarbonate, carbonate, chloride, fluoride, sulphate, nitrate, phosphate,
calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium. The distribution of parameters was explained by
Box-Whisker plot. Further Piper diagrams were drawn to identify the geochemical expressions between
the parameters. Multivariate factor analysis was used to assess the degree of factor loadings and to
identify the group of parameters influencing the variance of different water quality parameters. The
analytical data indicated that majority of water samples in the study area have higher concentration of
TDS, TH, TA, Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, Cl−, HCO3
− and F−.