An integrated approach to explore the suitability of nitrate-contaminated groundwater for drinking purposes in a semiarid region of India

Balamurugan Panneerselvam; Kirubakaran Muniraj; Karunanidhi Duraisamy; Chaitanya Pande; Shankar Karuppannan; Maciej Thomas

doi:10.1007/s10653-022-01237-5

An integrated approach to explore the suitability of nitrate-contaminated groundwater for drinking purposes in a semiarid region of India

Environ Geochem Health. 2023 Mar;45(3):647-663. doi: 10.1007/s10653-022-01237-5. Epub 2022 Mar 10.

Authors

Balamurugan Panneerselvam¹, Kirubakaran Muniraj², Karunanidhi Duraisamy³, Chaitanya Pande⁴, Shankar Karuppannan⁵, Maciej Thomas⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Civil, Building and Environmental Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy. balamurugan.phd10@gmail.com.
² Srii Vickiy and Co, Erode, Tamilnadu, India.
³ Department of Civil Engineering, Sri Shakthi Institute of Engineering and Technology, Coimbatore, India.
⁴ Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth Rahuri, Rahuri Ahmednagar, India.
⁵ Department of Applied Geology, School of Applied Natural Science, Adama Science and Technology University, Adama, Ethiopia.
⁶ Faculty of Environmental Engineering and Energy, Cracow University of Technology, Cracow, Poland.

Abstract

The main objective of the present study is to perform risk assessment of groundwater contaminated by nitrate (NO₃^-) and evaluate the suitability of groundwater for domestic purposes in the Palani region of South India. Thirty groundwater samples were collected in the study area. Various groundwater quality analysis parameters such as the pH, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids, total hardness, major cations (Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, Na⁺, and K⁺), and major anions (Cl^-, SO₄^2-, F^-, CO₃^2-, and HCO₃^-) were adopted in this study to evaluate the drinking water suitability according to 2011 World Health Organization (WHO) standards. Piper and Gibbs's diagrams for the tested groundwater indicated that, due to the influence of rock-water interactions, evaporation, and reverse ion exchange, the chemical composition of groundwater varied. According to water quality index (WQI) mapping results, 46.67% of the sample locations was identified as contaminated zones via GIS spatial analysis. Multivariate statistical analysis methods, such as principal component analysis, cluster analysis, and the Pearson correlation matrix, were applied to better understand the relationship between water quality parameters. The results demonstrated that 40% of the samples could be identified as highly affected zones in the study region due to a high nitrate concentration. The noncarcinogenic health risks among men, women, and children reached 40, 50, and 53%, respectively. The results illustrated that children and women occurred at a higher risk than did men in the study region. The major sources of contamination included discharge from households, uncovered septic tanks, leachate from waste dump sites, and excess utilization of fertilizers in the agricultural sector. Furthermore, using the nitrate health hazard integrated method with the conventional indexing approach ensures that groundwater reliability can be guaranteed, contamination can be explored, and appropriate remedial measures can be implemented.

Keywords: GIS techniques; Groundwater geochemistry; Nitrate contamination; Risk assessment; Statistical approach.

MeSH terms

Child
Drinking Water* / analysis
Environmental Monitoring / methods
Female
Groundwater* / chemistry
Humans
India
Male
Nitrates / analysis
Reproducibility of Results
Water Pollutants, Chemical* / analysis
Water Quality

Substances

Nitrates
Water Pollutants, Chemical
Drinking Water