Comprehensive assessment of groundwater quality using heavy metal pollution indices and geospatial technique: a case study from Wanaparthy watershed of upper Krishna River basin, Telangana, India
2021
Vaiphei, Suantak Paolalsiam | Kurakalva, Rama Mohan
The present study is to characterize groundwater quality using heavy metal pollution indices and geospatial variations. A total of 58 samples from hand pump/submersible bore wells were collected from the Wanaparthy watershed of the upper Krishna River basin according to the grid size (5×6 km²). The trace elements’ concentration in groundwater samples are found in the order of Zn (38.67%) > B (32.67%) > Ba (13.59%) > As (8.49%) > Hg (3.71%) > Cr (1.28%) > Ni (0.52%) > Cd (0.47%). Among these trace elements, arsenic (22.4%) and mercury (5.1%) were found above the permissible limits of WHO drinking water guideline values. A positive correlation between TH versus EC/TDS indicates the presence of trace elements due to chemical reaction (rock–water interaction). Arsenic correlation with EC/TDS/TH indicates artificial intervention. Drainage network analysis enumerates high concentration of parameters at near or joining to upper order of drainage system, which might be due to input of runoff water (interaction of variable rocks composition) and later stage infiltration to subsurface and reached to an aquifer. Heavy metal pollution index (HPI) showed 86.2% of samples are in the category of low class, whereas 12.07% of samples fall within medium class. According to metal index (MI) classification, 12.07% samples are in very pure, 24.14% samples are pure, while the remaining 63.79% samples are in the slightly to strongly affect category. This study suggested the main source of trace elements in groundwater might be from the dominant granitoid rocks because the area is mostly devoid of industrialization.
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