Assessment of Groundwater Quality in parts of Jalna district of Maharashtra, India using Water Quality Index

Abstract

In the present study, fifty-five groundwater samples were collected from the parts of the Jalna district of Maharashtra, India. The water samples were analyzed to determine various physic-chemical parameters like pH, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids, total hardness, alkalinity, chloride, sulphate, calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium. The groundwater’s geochemical control and hydrogeochemistry were evaluated using the Piper plots and water quality index (WQI). The hydrochemical analysis reveals that the groundwater is predominantly of CaNaHCO3 type, Water quality index (WQI) indicates that 33% and 2% of groundwater samples fall in poor and very poor categories for drinking purposes. This study reveals that groundwater quality is unfit for drinking purposes at a few places. The effective leaching, dissolution process and rock-water interaction process are the main sources for degrading the groundwater quality.