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Rapid urbanisation has had a significant negative influence on the water bodies that flow through and around urban areas. This study aims to evaluate the water quality and analyse the suitability for drinking and irrigation uses. This study envisaged assessing the water quality status of the groundwater using the pollution index of groundwater (PIG), ecological risk index (ERI) and multivariate statistical techniques, namely cluster analysis (CA) and principal component analysis (PCA), that were applied to differentiate the sources of water quality variation and determine the cause of pollution in the study area. Most groundwater is unsuitable for drinking and irrigation consumption, depending on analyses. PIG values indicated high pollution levels in the studied water body, rendering it unsuitable for any practical purpose. CA results showed the impact of surface water and treatment plant on groundwater. PCA was used to identify four important factors in the groundwater, including mineral and nutrient pollution, heavy metal pollution, organic pollution and faecal contamination. The deteriorating water quality of the groundwater was demonstrated to originate from vast sources of anthropogenic activities, especially municipal sewage discharge. Study wells had greater concentrations of Cl - and Na + in their water because seawater flows into the aquifer system and mixes with the marine aquifer matrix. Thus, the current work reveals how to employ the PIG and multivariate statistical approaches to obtain more accessible and more meaningful information about the water quality of groundwater and to identify the sources of pollution., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The present study is focused on seasonal variation in groundwater quality, hydrochemistry, and associated human health risk in the Shivganga river basin, Western Maharashtra, India, to promote sustainable development of groundwater resources of this semi-arid region. The qualitative geochemical analysis, contamination levels, and human health risk assessment (HHRA) of groundwater are integral steps in groundwater management in the Deccan Plateau basalt flow region of India. Representative groundwater samples (n = 68) collected from the Shivganga River basin area of Pune district, Maharashtra, during pre-monsoon (PRM) and post-monsoon (POM) seasons in 2015 were analyzed for major cations and anions. According to the World Health Organization (WHO, 2017) drinking standards, EC, total dissolved solids, hardness, bicarbonate, calcium, and magnesium surpassed the desirable limit. Boron and fluoride content exceeded the prescribed desirable limit of the WHO. The pollution and drinking suitability were assessed by computing pollution index of groundwater (PIG), groundwater quality index (GWQI), and HHRA particularly for boron and fluoride toxicity. PIG values inferred that about 6% of groundwater samples has moderate, 24% has low, and 70% has insignificant pollution in the PRM season, while only 1 sample (3%) showed high pollution, 6% showed low, and 91% showed insignificant pollution in the POM season. GWQI classification demonstrated that 27% and 15% samples are within the poor category, and only 15% and 18% of the samples fall into excellent water category in the PRM and the POM seasons, respectively. Total hazard index (THI) revealed that 88% of children, 59% of adults, and about 38% of infants are exposed to non-carcinogenic risk, as THI values (>1) were noted for the PRM season, while 62% of children, 47% of adults, and 24% of infants are vulnerable to non-carcinogenic health hazard during the POM period., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

This study evaluated the quality of groundwater and its suitability for drinking and irrigation in the hilly area of the Taihang Mountains in Henan Province, China. Groundwater samples were collected from 43 unconfined and 20 confined wells and analyzed. The pollution index of groundwater (PIG) was estimated based on the physicochemical parameters, and seven indices, including the sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), sodium percentage (%Na), residual sodium carbonate (RSC), permeability index (PI), magnesium ratio (MR), Kelley's ratio (KR), and corrosivity ratio (CR), were calculated to qualify the groundwater within the research area for irrigation activities. Multivariate statistical techniques were performed to better understand the hydrochemical processes. Chemical analysis showed that the dominant cation and anion were Ca 2+ and HCO 3 - , respectively, and the principal hydrochemical facies was Ca-Mg-HCO 3 . In terms of pH, total dissolved solids, Na + , Cl - , F - , and SO 4 2- , most samples were well within the limits prescribed by Chinese standards for drinking water quality, but more than half of the unconfined samples exceeded the specified limits for total hardness and nitrate. The PIG values suggested the pollution level was insignificant for all confined water samples and 72.09% of unconfined water samples, but the PIG distribution map showed that the water in the south central part of the study area had low to moderate pollution. According to the computed values of SAR, %Na, RSC, PI, KR, and MR and the results of a salinity diagram, the results further indicated that most of the studied samples were appropriate for irrigation usage. Only the CR values rendered 41.86% of the unconfined samples and 20% of the confined samples unfit for irrigation. Hence, proper measures are needed to resolve the corrosivity problem. Factor analysis resulted in the extraction of 3 factors that explained 81% of the data variability, and the extracted factors pointed towards geogenic factors governing the groundwater quality., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)