Groundwater evaluation for drinking purposes using statistical index: study of Akola and Buldhana districts of Maharashtra, India

Abstract

The groundwater quality for drinking purposes was assessed using statistical index of Akola and Buldhana districts, Maharashtra, India. The sampling was performed in both the seasons (pre-monsoon and post-monsoon), a total of nine water quality parameters (pH, TDS, Ca, Mg, Na, K, Cl, HCO3 and SO4) were estimated. Water quality index (WQI) method was used to classify groundwater on the basis of score, and WQI maps were generated using ArcGIS 10.3 software. These thematic maps of WQI have given detailed information of groundwater suitable areas for drinking purposes during pre-monsoon and post-monsoon. Majority of water samples falls in the category of suitable zones for drinking purposes. The aqueous geochemical modeling has been given statistics of mineral exposed during pre-monsoon and post-monsoon of the Mahesh river basin area. Geochemical model WATEQ4F has been used to compute the saturation index of different minerals of the study area. The saturation index of the carbonates helps us to know the thermodynamic stability of groundwater and to discover out the geochemical movements of groundwater.