Assessment of physicochemical parameters in groundwater quality of desert area (Tharparkar) of Pakistan

In Tharparkar desert, the main source of water supply is groundwater. Water for domestic use is normally collected from open dug wells. For this study, twenty-five groundwater samples were collected from the open dug well of Talukas of Tharparkar, Southern Sindh, Pakistan, to evaluate its quality and suitability for drinking, domestic, and agricultural use. The findings in this paper are based on an examination of regional variations and the use of a geographic information system (GIS), which incorporates the results of 25 well water samples collected from six villages in Taluka Mithi Tharparkar. The study's findings reveal excessive concentrations of physical and chemical characteristics in the majority of locations, in contradiction to the World Health Organization's (WHO) recommendations for drinking water. Majority of wells in the studied area the TDS were ranging from 800 to 11,000 mg/l. However, villages of Madhu, Dharar and Mithi were found to have high TDS that exceeded 1000 mg/L, which was a major cause of health problems in the area. Moreover, the total concentration of arsenic and fluoride in water samples varied between 0.0015 and 80 μg/L and 0.1–5.1 mg/l respectively. The inorganic form of As, was found to be 95% of the total As level in the regional drinking water. The concentration of Fluoride in areas of Mithi, Dharar, Harmar and Satar was found above the permissible limits. Furthermore, results indicate that correlations among water parameters dropped, and examined values were inconsequential. Statistical analysis (a linear regression method) was performed, for predicting the concentrations of groundwater quality parameters. A significant positive association between 1% and 4% was found between different parameters. The collected health data indicate that the study area has waterborne diseases. Therefore, comprehensive groundwater monitoring and management are required in the studied area to protect populations from various diseases caused by poor water quality.