Pollution Research Paper

PHYSICO-CHEMICAL PARAMETERS, PARAMETRIC RATIOS AND CORRELATION COEFFICIENTS OF WELL WATERS OF SOUTH-WEST COAST OF KERALA, INDIA

G. ACHUTHAN NAIR, M. PRASANTH, S.R. KRISHNAPRIYA AND B. SUKUMAR

Abstract

Analysis of twenty two physico-chemical parameters of well water samples from 12 stations of south-west coast of Kerala, India, were carried out during the monsoon, 2009 and pre-monsoon 2010 seasons. Some of the stations selected were affected by 2004 Asian Tsunami. The mean values of each parameter of all the stations together with their standard deviation (SD) and standard error (SE) were calculated. To assess the quality of well water, the values of each parameter was compared with the standard desirable limit of that parameter in drinking water. The concentrations of salinity, phosphorus, sodium, potassium, chromium, lead, mercury, iron, cadmium and manganese exceeded the permissible limits set for them in drinking water and the possible reasons for the excess were described. Parametric ratios of 18 water parameters of water with that of hardness of water showed that all parameters studied except those of pH , copper, lead, iron and nitrate originated from sources different from that of hardness. A systematic calculation was made to determine the correlation coefficient ‘r’ amongst the parameters. The results revealed that out of the 253 correlations tabulated between two parameters, 71 were found to have significant correlations and among them 26 correlations were significant at 5% level, 28 at 1% level and 17 at 0.1% level. Forty two correlations had inverse relationships. The importance of the study from the point of view of water quality is discussed.