WATER QUALITY INDEX ASSESSMENT FOR GROUND WATER OF INDORE CITY (M.P.), INDIANiharika Shivhare, Anita Gour, Anubha V. Pandya and Rati Trivedi NairAbstract It is generally assumed that ground water is safe (free from pathogens) and does not contain harmful constituents. But this belief is not true under all circumstances. The unscientific disposal of human and animal wastes is found to be the main anthropogenic activity that has lead to the contamination of ground water with micro-organisms, nitrates, etc. To check the level of contamination in Indore city, monitoring of ground water quality was carried out for three years from January 2016 to June 2019 from twenty groundwater sources in Indore city. Analysis was carried out for the assessment of 20 parameters including mineral, demand, nutrient, bacteriological and metal analysis. The samples were collected at an interval of every 3 months. The average values of the 14 times analysis were considered for calculating the Water Quality Index. Water Quality Index (WQI) is an index to convert complex data pertaining to water quality into the most comprehensible and simple data that can be understood by general public and policy makers as a whole. The WQI for many of the samples ranges between 25 - 50 indicating its bad quality while for very few of the samples it was between 50- 70, showing bad to medium water quality. The study revealed that all the groundwater sources studied are contaminated and are unfit for human consumption and requires purification before it is used for drinking and domestic purposes. |