Study on the Quality of Groundwater and its Impact on Human Health: A Case Study from Murshidabad District, West Bengal
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Study on the Quality of Groundwater and its Impact on Human Health: A Case Study from Murshidabad District, West Bengal Bhabani Prasad Mukhopadhyay1, Swarnali Barua2, Amit Bera1,* and Atin Kumar Mitra1 1
Department of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur – 711 103, India Department of Geology, Presidency University, Kolkata - 700 073, India *E-mail: [email protected]
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ABSTRACT Murshidabad is an alluvial terrain in the Gangetic plains of West Bengal. Water is mainly stored in the pore spaces of the formation and thus the yield is quite good from the aquifers of this region. But the suitability of this water for human use not only depends on quantity of groundwater available but also to a great extent on the chemical quality of groundwater. which has direct effect on human health. An extensive study on the groundwater condition of Lalbagh Municipality area in Murshidabad district, West Bengal, was carried out. There is huge extraction of groundwater from the alluvial aquifers of the region for irrigation and domestic purposes. In this study, depth to water level and water quality is assessed in twenty-three locations on the basis of pH, EC (electrical conductivity), TDS (Total dissolved solids), arsenic (As), free iron (Fe), major cations and anions. The hydrogeological study along with geochemical aspects shows presence of different chemical components beyond permissible limits in various locations. Occurrence of high levels of As and Fe with respect to normal standard can be related to the prevalence of diseases like melanosis, liver diseases, skin cancer etc. among the local population of the study area. INTRODUCTION Groundwater, an essential part of hydrological cycle, is essential for all the living organisms for their sustainability. With the increase of global population, the demand for groundwater is also rising. Groundwater is the only fresh water source on which humans depend for drinking, agricultural, domestic and as well as for industrial needs. Extraction of large quantity of groundwater has led to severe water crisis in different parts of the world (Asoka et al., 2017; Jasrotia et al., 2013), as well as in India (MacDonald et al., 2016; Rodell et al., 2009; Prasad and Rao, 2018). Degradation of groundwater level also has negative impact on groundwater quality (Bera et al., 2020; Biswas et al., 2020). Several studies (Jury and Vaux Jr, 2007; Srinivasan et al., 2012; Li et al., 2017) have shown that areas suffering from groundwater crisis also suffer from low quality of water and other water contamination problems. Groundwater quality has been investigated by many researchers (Mayo et al., 2013; Jianmin et al., 2015; Neshat and Pradhan, 2015; Khan and Jhariya, 2017; Saba et al., 2018; Shaji et al., 2018; Selvam et al., 2018; Ahmad et al., 2019; Gaonkar et al., 2019; Kumari et al., 2019; Bidhuri and Khan, 2020; Kumari and Rai, 2020; Mali et al., 2020; Ravish et al. 2020). Groundwater related problems are especially severe among the developing c
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