Study of fluoride contamination status of ground water in Bassi Tehsil of district Jaipur, Rajasthan, India

Water is an essential natural resource for sustaining life and environment but over the last few decades the water quality is deteriorating due to it's over exploitation. Water quality is essential parameter to be studied when the overall focus is sustainable development keeping mankind at focal point. Groundwater is the major source of drinking water in rural as well as in urban areas and over 94% of the drinking water demand is met by groundwater. Fluoride is one of the critical chemical parameter, which influences the quality of ground water. Excess intake of fluoride through drinking water causes fluorosis on human beings in many states of India, including Rajasthan. The study was carried out to assess the fluoride contamination status of ground water in Bassi tehsil of district Jaipur, Rajasthan, India. For this purpose, 50 water samples collected from hand pumps, open wells and bore wells of villages of study area were analysed for fluoride content. Fluoride concentration in these sampling sites varied from 0.1 to 12.5 mg/L in ground water samples, with lowest value 0.1 mg/L (S45) in village Tunga and highest value 12.5mg/L (S31) in village Hanumanpura. Out of 50 villages, maximum 14 villages (28%) were found to have fluoride above 1.5 but below 3.0 mg/L and minimum 5 villages have fluoride content in between the range of 1.0–1.5 mg/L. 6 villages (12%) have fluoride concentration above 3.0 but below 5.0 mg/L and 12 villages (24%) are having fluoride above 5.0 mg/L. As per the desirable and maximum permissible limit for fluoride in drinking water, determined by WHO and Bureau of Indian Standards, 74% of groundwater sources are unfit for drinking purposes. Due to the higher fluoride level in drinking water several cases of dental and skeletal fluorosis have appeared at alarming rate in this region. After evaluating the data of this study it is concluded that there is an instant need to take ameliorative steps in this region to prevent the population from fluorosis.