Studies on Groundwater Quality of Palanpur City, Gujarat, India

The present study deals with the groundwater quality of Palanpur city, north Gujarat. The groundwater quality was assessed by examining various physicochemical and bacteriological characteristics like temperature, turbidity, pH, dissolved oxygen, free CO², total hardness, Ca and Mg hardness, TDS, total alkalinity, chloride, sulphate, nitrite, total iron, fluoride and MPN of coliforms. The bore well water samples were collected from north, south, east and west zones of Palanpur city during summer, winter and monsoon seasons. TDS, Ca-hardness, sulphate, total iron, fluoride and MPN count of coliforms were above the permissible limit prescribed by IS: 10500. On the basis of TDS value, drinking water samples collected from east zone were rated as fair and the samples collected from north, south and west zones were rated as unacceptable for their taste. On the basis of total hardness the bore well water samples collected from Palanpur were classified as hard to very hard. Except one sample collected from the west zone during winter, rest of the samples showed sulphate values within the permissible limit of 400 mg/L. The total iron values exceeded the permissible limit of 1.0 mg/L and imparted bitter astringent taste to the water. In most cases fluoride values exceeded the desirable limit of 1.0 mg/L and even exceeded the permissible limit of 1.5 mg/L. Most of the zones (except east zone) showed MPN of coliforms beyond the desirable limit of 10 coliforms beyond the desirable limit of 10 coliforms/ 100 mL, therefore, these samples were regarded bacteriologically unsafe for drinking. The defluoridation and disinfection of bore well water of Palanpur city were the two principal measures recommended to ensure the health of population residing in this area.