Water is essential for all living organisms in the universe. Chemicals can cause contamination in groundwater near aquacultural activity areas. Keeping in view the hectic aquacultural activity in surrounding locations of Akividu town in West Godavari District of AP, India, it is proposed to assess the chemical and microbial contamination of waters to suggest remedial measures to protect the quality of water for safeguarding the health of the public residing in the nearby habitations who consume these waters for drinking purposes. 16 Groundwater samples were collected and analyzed for assessing the physicochemical parameters viz., pH, Electrical conductivity (EC), Total Dissolved solids (TDS), Total hardness (TH), Total Alkalinity (TA), Na+, K+, Calcium, Magnesium, Chloride, Sulphate, Nitrate and Phosphate, Irrigation parameters like %Na, SAR, KR RSC, and microbial analysis. The study results revealed that the samples were contaminated chemically and also with pathogenic bacteria like Pseudomonas, Citrobacter freundii and Escherichia coli which can cause water-borne diseases. Further, a health survey was carried out to verify the adverse effects to be caused by the chemical and microbial contamination of water on people?s health. The health survey results indicated the sufferings of the people who consume this water for drinking and domestic purposes. The waters are to be treated accordingly to control the chemical and bacterial contamination by using the available treatment methodologies before considering them for drinking purposes.

Agriculture is located at the crossing point between ecosystems and society, where changes in the global environmental conditions affect agricultural activities. The total agricultural area in Abu Dhabi Emirate in 2017 was 749,868 donums. This study had two main objectives; first, to understand how agricultural and livestock production has changed and how these changes are relevant to socioeconomic statuses; second, to assess climate change’s impact on agricultural and livestock production through groundwater characteristics. We distributed and collected 301 surveys throughout the three main regions in the Abu Dhabi Emirate (Abu Dhabi City, Al-Ain City, and Al Dhafrah). The results indicated that approximately 68% of the respondents in Al-Ain agreed that it is currently much easier and more profitable to manage a farm than it was 20 years ago. Further, 39% of the farmers agreed that both product quality and quantity have improved over the past 20 years. About 51% of Emirati nationals agreed that production has changed over time. The farmers aged between 51-60 years also agreed that there has been a change in production over time. Half of the farm owners agreed that production has changed, while a majority of the workers provided neutral responses on this topic. While a number of both owners and workers agreed that both production and income levels changed, more respondents disagreed than agreed that these changes had occurred. Finally, the farmers aged between 51-60 years agreed more that the groundwater levels and quality had changed over the past 20 years.

Fluctuations of groundwater table (GWT) has great role in agriculture through assured supply of irrigation in industry and other fronts. As such, probability of possible GWT also plays an important role in terms of efficient usages of this valuable resource. An attempt has been made to find probability distributions taking seasonal (January, May, August and November for 2005 to 2013) information on GWT for the districts under five agro-climatic zones of West Bengal. The study reveals that 17 districts of West Bengal, India, can be categorised into 6 probability model groups: Weibul, Normal, Weibul (3P), Log Logistic (3P), Log Normal (3P) and Gamma (3P). These models can be used to ascertain the probability of occurrences of GWT in specific district. Cluster analysis, using GWT figures for various seasons over the period of study reveals that the districts could be grouped into four clusters, which in-turn may facilitate clusterwise strategy for restricting the depletion of GWT depth or maintenance of the same. These techniques can be used for intradistrict GWT analysis for efficient monitoring of GWT.

Geospatial technology was utilized in this study to specifically delineate groundwater potential zones. IRS-LISS III data in conjunction with Survey of India toposheet (1:50,000) and extensive field data were used for the preparation of various thematic maps. Various thematic maps have been prepared for geology, geomorphology, slope, relative relief, land use, drainage density, lineament density, transmissivity, storativity and water table fluctuation. Thematic maps have been integrated in GIS by assigning suitable rank and weightage to each parameter based on their respective significance. Integrated groundwater potential map is a genuine tool decidedly resourceful for sustainable groundwater development and management. The charisma of this innovative method is that, this model can be used in any other area to functionally demarcate groundwater potential zones, and hence will be of immense societal significance.

Groundwater is the most important resource for human consumption and the support of habitat and for maintaining the feature of base flow to river courses, while its quality is necessary to ensure sustainable safe exploit of the resources for all purposes. The untreated or inappropriate industrial effluents discharge on the surface causes harsh groundwater pollution in the industrial area of the nation. Sixty groundwater samples have been collected from boreholes and water samples were analysed to examine the groundwater quality of Avinashi-Tirupur-Palladam region. The samples were examined for the physico-chemical parameters like pH, electrical conductivity (EC) and total dissolved solids (TDS), major cations like calcium (Ca2+), magnesium (Mg2+), sodium (Na+), potassium (K+) and major anions like bicarbonate (HCO3-), carbonate (CO32-), chloride (Cl-), nitrate (NO3-) and sulphate (SO42-), along with fluoride. The abundance of major cations and anions was investigated. Spatial distribution map based on total dissolved solids indicates that the Noyyal and Nallar river basins, central regions of the study area, are more affected. The chemical parameter data of groundwater samples of the study area are plotted in Gibbs’s diagram. Based on the Piper diagram, different water types were identified. Hydro-chemically, the quality of the groundwater for human consumption was determined. The ion concentration distribution indicates that most of the groundwater sample locations in the study area are not suitable for domestic use.

As groundwater is the primary element of life, countries all over the world are experimenting with legal reforms. The degree to which law reforms combine justice and sustainability is a crucial question. In response to this question, the present article focuses on a case study of Uttar Pradesh, India. Our response is based on a content analysis of the Uttar Pradesh Groundwater (Management and Regulation) Act, 2019, and the Uttar Pradesh Groundwater (Management and Regulation) Rules, 2020. Three conclusions emerged from our investigation. First, the 2019 Groundwater Act and the 2020 Draft Groundwater Rules are primarily motivated by concerns about resource sustainability, particularly in areas where the water table is steadily declining. Still, neither the 2019 Groundwater Act nor the 2020 Draft Groundwater Rules propose any proactive groundwater justice measures. Second, we suggest that some locally defined basic elements are critical in supporting sustainability and – to a lesser extent – groundwater justice. These characteristics include a community’s ability to (1) recognize a crisis and show a willingness to address it; (2) establish a rule-bound community groundwater resource; (3) demonstrate leadership and a sense of community; and (4) make use of awareness, information, and knowledge. Our third conclusion is that there is a need for community practices and state-led groundwater law to co-evolve; this co-evolution has the potential to create groundwater arrangements that support both groundwater justice and sustainability.

The occurrence of high nitrate levels in groundwater has to be recognized as a threat to humans and animals. Infant methaemoglobinaemia and nitrate poisoning in livestock occur at unexpected times and places. Nitrate pollution in the groundwater is one of the major pollution problems. In the last few decades nitrate concentration in groundwater has increased dramatically. Groundwater contamination by nitrate (NO3-) is a global problem and is most often associated with leachates derived from fertilizers and animal or human wastes. The study presented here was carried out in Varanasi district. The nitrate content in water was investigated during premonsoon (March-April, 2013) and postmonsoon (November-December, 2013) seasons and compared with the standard values given by WHO. Eighty four, from different cropping systems (i.e. rice-wheat, rice-vegetable, vegetable-vegetable, pulse-pulse, orchard and sugarcane) groundwater samples were collected from the bore wells. The analysis of nitrate in these water samples reveals that some villages have a high concentration of nitrate, exceeding permissible limits of WHO (45 mg/L), which is due to the more than the required quantity of nitrogen based fertilizers, water, manure and pesticides are used extensively which all contribute to the non point source contamination of nitrates in groundwater of the study area.