ASSESSMENT OF GROUND WATER QUALITY WITH SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON AS, F AND FE: A CASE STUDY IN MORIGAON DISTRICT, ASSAM, INDIABijoy Sankar Goswami, Munmi Sarma and Hrishikesh SarmaAbstract One of the main concern and a global challenge is the assessment of the quality of ground water. In the present work, water samples were collected from 23 different locations and the source was tube-wells, Dug wells respectively. The collected samples were analyzed with respect to general physico- chemical parameters, heavy metals and coliform bacterial contamination using established standard procedures. Most of the parameters are well within the specified limit as suggested by WHO, USEPA and IS:10500 except fluoride, iron, arsenic, manganese and lead content respectively. The fluoride content (1.66 mg/l - 4.2 mg/l) exceeded the tolerable limit (1.5 mg/l) at all the locations while iron concentration was ranged from 0.002 mg/l to 5.2 mg/l and tolerance limit (1.0 mg/l) prescribed by WHO was exceeded in six locations. The concentration of arsenic (2.22 μg/l to 19.77 μg/l) crossed the permissible limit (10 μg/l) fixed by US-EPA in only one site. Similarly the mean values of Mn and Pb exceeded their respective tolerance limit at specific locations prescribed by various organizations. The coliform bacterial contamination (0 â 450 per 100 ml) was also obtained in few of the water samples. Additionally, it was revealed by SAR studies that for irrigation purposes most of the ground water samples were excellent (<10). The present study revealed that the ground water quality was significantly contaminated with fluoride; iron, lead and to some extent manganese and bacterial load. |