Keywords

1 Introduction

Groundwater is a natural dynamic renewable resource with consideration of all others [1]. Its availability in adequate quantity is very important for human life and other purposes. Human life depends, in direct (for drinking) and indirect ways (like cooking, washing, bathing, etc.), on fresh water. Groundwater is the most crucial source of potable water throughout the world [2]. It is generally consumed by drinking, washing, preparing food and so forth. Groundwater defilement due to anthropogenic exercises is a worldwide issue for domain researchers and policymakers. Among the anthropogenic exercises, industrialization, urbanization, solid waste unloading, present-day rural and so forth assume a huge part in tainting of freshwater aquifers [3,4,5,6,7,8]. But presently due to a lack of discipline and weak legislations toward conservation, the quality and quantity of water became polluted and spoiled. Consequently, the number of water-borne diseases which cause health hazards has increased [9]. Nonetheless, the greater part of the investigations connected with groundwater quality examinations have been completed in the eastern or focal district of Uttar Pradesh, and there is an earnest need to lead such a review in the western locale. Saharanpur district falls under the Hindon River catchment [2]. That’s why it is necessary to monitor the quality of groundwater regularly to observe the demand and level of pollution in it.

The present study mainly focused on the physiochemical analysis of groundwater samples of different locations and formulated the results in the WQI to conclude the exact quality of groundwater whether drinkable or not.

2 Materials and Methods

2.1 Study Area

As shown in Fig. 1, the study was carried out at Saharanpur city, Uttar Pradesh. The Saharanpur district is very near to the Shivalik hills range and lies under the upper Ganga-Yamuna region of northern India [10]. The mean sea level of Saharanpur district is ~269 m, and the annual mean rainfall is approximately 1150 mm [11]. Due to the deposition of alluvium soil across the district by the tributaries of two rivers, the soil is fertile. The population of the district is 3,464,228 out of which 69% lives in rural locations [12]. Thus, mostly the population depends on agriculture for their livelihood. The important industries in Saharanpur include the tobacco industry, cotton industry, paper mill, sugar industry and woodwork industry. The majority of the population depends on hand pumps and bore wells for water requirements. The samples for the study were collected from 18 different sites as shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 1
A map of India points to Uttar Pradesh. The map is magnified below to give a close-up view of the areas of Uttar Pradesh. It is further zoomed in on the left and marks the areas of Megh Chappar, Dara Kottala, Mahipura, Sahara City Park, Gandhi Park, Bag Kala Lan, and Gawaleera, among others in a dotted outline.

Image showing study area

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Fig. 2
A map of Saharanpur, India displays the pinned sites that include C block, Damodarpuri, Forest department, Mohammad Mafi, Khanlampura, Star paper mill, Shekhpua Kadeem, and dargapur.

Image showing sites of sample collected

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2.2 Sample Collection

Groundwater samples from hand pumps and bore wells of different locations were collected in bottles (polyethylene) which were prewashed by diluted acid and soaked with deionized water. Before sampling, hand pumps and bore wells were pumped for 10 min to remove standing water from the sources to get a representative sample. The samples were properly preserved and carried to the laboratory of Environmental Management Division, Central Pulp & Paper Research Institute, Saharanpur, India, for further analysis. The analyses were carried out as per standard [13]. All the samples were analyzed in duplicate to ensure more accuracy and less error.

In the present study, seven important parameters were chosen for the calculation of WQI. The standards for drinking water quality recommended by World Health Organization (WHO) [14], Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) [15] and Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) were taken to compute Water Quality Index (WQI). The weighted arithmetic index method [16] was adopted to calculate the WQI (Table 1)

Table 1 Drinking water standards as per recommended agency [14, 15]
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$${\varvec{W}}{\varvec{Q}}{\varvec{I}}=\frac{\sum {\varvec{q}}{\varvec{n}}{\varvec{W}}{\varvec{n}}}{\sum {\varvec{W}}{\varvec{n}}}$$

where

qn = Quality rating (nth water quality parameter) and n = 1, 2, ……0.6.

Wn = Relative weight of nth parameters.

Now,

$${\varvec{q}}{\varvec{n}}=\frac{100({\varvec{V}}{\varvec{n}}-{\varvec{V}}{\varvec{i}}{\varvec{o}})}{({\varvec{S}}{\varvec{n}}-{\varvec{V}}{\varvec{i}}{\varvec{o}})}$$

where

Vn = Estimated value (nth parameter).

Sn = Permissible value (nth parameter).

Vio = Ideal value (nth parameter for pure water).

Vio = 7.0 (for pH) and, 0 (for all other parameters).

And,

$${\varvec{W}}{\varvec{n}}=\frac{{\varvec{K}}}{{\varvec{S}}{\varvec{n}}}$$

where

K = Proportionality Constant.

$${\text{Now}}{\text{ }}{\bf{K = 1 /}}\sum {{\bf{(1/ Sn)}}}$$

The water quality index describes the quality of water as per Chatterji et al., 2002, given in Table 2.

Table 2 Degree of water quality based on the value of WQI
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3 Results and Discussion

The results of the physiochemical analysis of groundwater samples of different locations are presented in Tables 3 and 4 and Fig. 3.

Table 3 Physiochemical analysis of different samples
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Table 4 Calculation of water quality index (WQI) for different locations
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Fig. 3
A bar graph of the water quality in different regions. Shekhpura 2, 340.86. Gandhi colony 1, 116.26. Kapil vihar 1, 250.88. Himmat nagar, 231.76. Near the paper mill, 188.21.

Water quality index (WQI) for different locations

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The analysis results of different parameters of groundwater samples as presented in Table 3 reveal that only pH and Chloride concentrations meet the permissible limits as per the recommended agency. All other parameters were not meeting the prescribed standard permissible limits, except one or two locations for a specific parameter. The EC levels in all samples were found to be high in all locations. Only three sites were found to be ≤0.5 mS/cm, which was close to the permissible limit, i.e., 0.3 mS/cm. Out of 18 locations, only one location was found to meet the permissible limit of Total Alkalinity. For Total Hardness and Calcium, only 8 locations were found to meet the standard limit. Nine locations were found to meet the permissible of magnesium.

The possible impacts on groundwater quality may be likely due to the discharge of untreated sewage water and industries’ effluent into river streams, as the city is an industrial hub of all kinds of large- and medium-scale industries. A seasonal river named Dhamola is also flowing on the side of the selected locations carrying municipal, household and industrial wastewater. The wastewater and waste are dumped into the river without any treatment. This may also degrade the groundwater quality by contaminating the groundwater aquifers through sediment percolation.

4 Conclusion

Among all the sampling locations, the value of different parameters varies significantly due to various anthropogenic means. Understanding the groundwater quality is important because it decides the suitability of water for different purposes like drinking, bathing, cooking, etc. It is difficult to understand the suitability of specific parameter results because all the parameters are not under permissible limits. Thus, WQI is formulated for the water with seven different water quality parameters to understand the quality of water in a single term. The study reveals that the WQI of all the locations was greater than 100. And in some locations, it was found to be more than 200. It means that the quality of water in these locations is extremely poor and not suitable for drinking purposes. The study provides useful information to plan and execute suitable practices to combat groundwater pollution in the study area.