Investigation of Some Physicochemical Parameters and Heavy Metals for Monitoring the Groundwater Quality of Savar Upazila of Dhaka, Bangladesh

Abstract

Safe and clean water is an indispensable component for all kinds of living beings. An attempt was taken to examine the drinking water, particularly the groundwater quality of Savar Upazila under the Dhaka District of Bangladesh by assessing some physicochemical parameters such as pH, total dissolved solids (TDS), electrical conductivity (EC), and temperature and the levels of different heavy metals (Cu, Cd, Cr, Fe, Mn, and Zn). To measure the concentration of the six selected metals from the groundwater samples collected from 38 different locations of Savar Upazila, Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry (AAS) was used. Our results showed that the pH, TDS, EC, and temperature ranged from (6.56-7.72), (73-437 mg/L), (117-654 µS/cm), and (27.7-30.5ºC), respectively which were found within the limit of water standards recommended by national and global regulatory authorities. The mean concentration of different studied metals in the reported water samples of Savar Upazila followed the order of Fe > Zn > Mn > Cr > Cu > Cd. The average concentration was 0.136±0.188 mg/L, 0.121±0.289 mg/L, 0.033±0.060 mg/L, 0.015±0.0096 mg/L, 0.0104±0.005 mg/L, and 0.0022±0.0019 mg/L for Fe, Zn, Mn, Cr, Cu, and Cd, respectively. In this study, Water quality index (WQI) was also calculated for the studied samples and it was observed that the groundwater of Savar Upazila belonged in the good to excellent categories and can be recommended as suitable for drinking purposes.