Quality and degree of pollution of groundwater, using PIG from a rural part of Telangana State, India

Impacts of geogenic and anthropogenic sources change seriously quality of groundwater. Inferior groundwater quality directly affects the human health, agricultural output and industrial sector. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the groundwater quality for drinking purpose and also to identify the pollutants responsible for variation of chemical quality of groundwater, using pollution index of groundwater (PIG). Groundwater samples collected from a rural part of Telangana State, India, were analyzed for pH, total dissolved solids (TDS), calcium (Ca 2+ ), magnesium (Mg 2+ ), sodium (Na + ), potassium (K + ), bicarbonate ( HCO 3 - ), chloride ( Cl - ), sulfate ( SO 4 2 - ), nitrate ( NO 3 - ) and fluoride ( F - ). The groundwater is characterized by Na + and HCO 3 - ions. The values of TDS, Mg 2+ , Na + , K + , HCO 3 - , Cl - , SO 4 2 - , NO 3 - and F - are more than their threshold limits prescribed for drinking purpose in a few groundwater samples. The computed values of PIG varied from 0.69 to 1.37, which classify the 80% of the present study area into the insignificant pollution zone (PIG: