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Sirsa River flows through the central part of the Nalagarh valley, belongs to the rapid industrial belt of Baddi, Barotiwala and Nalagarh (BBN). The appraisal of surface water quality to ascertain its utility in such ecologically sensitive areas is need of the hour. The present study envisages the application of multivariate analysis, water utility class and conventional graphical representation to reveal the hidden factor responsible for deterioration of water quality and determine the hydrochemical facies and its evolution processes of water types in Nalagarh valley, India. The quality assessment is made by estimating pH, electrical conductivity (EC), total dissolved solids (TDS), total hardness, major ions (Na+, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+, HCO3 −, Cl−, SO4 2−, NO3 − and PO4 3−), dissolved oxygen (DO), biological oxygen demand (BOD) and total coliform (TC) to determine its suitability for drinking and domestic purposes. The parameters like pH, TDS, TH, Ca2+, HCO3 −, Cl−, SO4 2−, NO3 − are within the desirable limit as per Bureau of Indian Standards (Indian Standard Drinking Water Specification (Second Edition) IS:10500. Indian Standard Institute, New Delhi, pp 1–18, 2012). Mg2+, Na+ and K+ ions for pre monsoon and EC during pre and post monsoon at few sites and approx 40% samples of BOD and TC for both seasons exceeds the permissible limits indicate organic contamination from human activities. Water quality classification for designated use indicates that maximum surface water samples are not suitable for drinking water source without conventional treatment. The result of piper trillinear and Chadha’s diagram classified majority of surface water samples for both seasons fall in the fields of Ca2+–Mg2+–HCO3 − water type indicating temporary hardness. PCA and CA reveal that the surface water chemistry is influenced by natural factors such as weathering of minerals, ion exchange processes and anthropogenic factors. Thus, the present paper illustrates the importance of multivariate techniques for reliable quality characterization of surface water quality to develop effective pollution reduction strategies and maintain a fine balance between the industrialization and ecological integrity.

Groundwater quality in the alluvial plains of Punjab has special significance and needs great attention since it is the foremost source of drinking, irrigation and industrial uses. The present research work emphasizes the integrated hydrogeochemical and chemometric statistical approaches to appraise the geochemical processes and source apportionment of the groundwater in the alluvial plains of Jalandhar district, Punjab, India. The human health risk assessment was also performed to quantify the potential non-carcinogenic impacts of nitrate and fluoride on human health through ingestion of groundwater. For this purpose, 41 groundwater samples were collected from different groundwater abstraction units and analysed for pH, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids, total hardness, total alkalinity and major ions (Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, K+, HCO3−, CO32−, SO42−, NO3−, F−, Cl− and PO43−) using standard protocols. Drinking water quality index and Revelle index showed that groundwater samples fall under poor to unfit water class and salinization along the south-western portion of the study region shows poor water quality. The results of the hazard index (HIingestion) show 68% and 46.34% of the groundwater samples have HI > 1 for children and adults. The non-carcinogenic health risk assessment of nitrate (NO3−) and fluoride (F−) on the local population indicated that the children are more vulnerable through direct ingestion of drinking water than adults. Piper diagram and saturation index reveal that Ca2+–Mg2+–HCO3− is the dominant hydrochemical facies and oversaturated with calcite, dolomite and aragonite minerals in the groundwater. Gibbs diagrams, chloro-alkaline indices and scatter plots show that the hydrochemistry of the groundwater is mainly governed by aquifer material interaction such as weathering of silicate, carbonate rock, halite dissolution and cation exchange process. Chemometric statistical techniques revealed that the source identification of parameters such as Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, K+, HCO3−, CO3− and F− is originated from geogenic factors, whereas NO3−, SO42−, Cl− and PO43− are from the anthropogenic origin. Therefore, urgent and efficient measures must be taken to combat groundwater pollution and reduce human health risk in the study area.

The present study is focused on the agriculturally dominated taluks of Nakodar, Shahkot and Phillaur in Jalandhar district, Punjab. Integrated multivariate technique along with geochemical signatures and vertical depth profiles of major ions were studied to assess the hydrogeochemical characteristics, processes influencing the aquifer chemistry and suitability appraisal for different uses. The analytical results revealed that the groundwater is hard to very hard in nature and their relative abundance of major ions are Na+ > Mg2+ > Ca2+ > K+ and HCO3– > SO42− > CO32– > Cl− > NO3− > F− > PO42− respectively. Elevated levels of NO3− (2 samples) in Phillaur taluk and F− (1 sample in every three taluks) were observed in shallow aquifer of the study area. The overall results of the water quality index show that a major part of the study area possesses good water quality. The taluk wise WQI results depict that certain pockets fall in poor (3 samples in Phillaur, 1 in Shahkot) to very poor (1 sample of Nakodar) water classes. The chemical compositions of the study area were predominantly Ca2+–Mg2+–HCO3– followed by Ca2+–Mg2+–Cl−–SO42−facies. Both Nakodar and Shahkot taluk shows Na+-Mg2+–HCO3– water type, while Phillaur taluk shows Mg2+–HCO3– water type. The water type of the shallow aquifer is complex in nature showing Na+-Mg2+–HCO3– type, further it changed to Na+–HCO3– in the intermediate zone. Interpretation of the geochemical signatures of the groundwater suggested that natural weathering and dissolution of silicate and carbonate minerals and ion exchange process are largely controlling the aquifer chemistry. Principal component analysis (PCA) extracts five principal components (PC's), where PC1, PC2 and PC4 are influenced by mixed factors i.e., lithogenic and anthropogenic inputs. PC3 is exclusively affected by anthropogenic factors like domestic sewage, fertilizer and irrigation return flow respectively and PC5 is mainly controlled by natural factors.

Chemometric techniques and pollution assessment indices were applied to determine the source and intensity of pollution in the Sirsa River, Himachal Pradesh, India . Results show EC, Cr, Fe, Mn, and Ni were above the permissible limit as per the Bureau of Indian Standards. The heavy metal pollution index (HPI) and contamination index (Cd) provided contrasting outcome and poor correlation was observed. A heavy metal evaluation index (HEI) method was developed using a multiple of the mean and correlation coefficient values to provide an alternative pollution classification. The criteria of HEI adopted for reclassification of HPI and Cd produced comparable results; 40 % samples were labeled as low contamination, 50 % as medium contamination, and 10 % as high contamination for all indices. Principal component analysis along with cluster analysis was used to identify the main factors responsible for degradation of water quality, namely discharge of industrial effluent, river bed mining, agricultural runoff, and minor natural or geogenic input. The methods and chemometric study proposed here can be used as effective tools to gather information about water quality and water resource management.

Water is the vital resource on which life sustains and water becomes more valuable in this cold desert part of the northernmost region of India, called Ladakh which comprises of two districts, Leh and Kargil. Groundwater since ancient times in the form of springs provided ample water for the region and its contribution has increased manifold in the wake of recent spurt in bore well installations, especially, in Leh-Town. Due to increasing urbanization, with surge in a huge floating population in the absence of a sewerage link in summer tourism boom season, puts extra stress on the limited water resources of the area and with the rising living standards, grey and black water is being disposed off in the ground-pit or in septic tanks without any treatment. This may lead to pollution of groundwater resources especially, in the densely populated residential areas. For insuring sustainable development of groundwater, in the absence of any observation wells for constant monitoring of quality or quantity of groundwater and the unregulated installation of bore-wells makes this quality characterization very significant and helps in future management. The physico-chemical parameters like pH, electrical conductivity, turbidity, total dissolved solids, hardness, alkalinity, nitrates, fluoride, and chlorides were analyzed to meet the objective of the study. The results revealed that in general, the present status of groundwater quality is suitable for drinking purposes and out of 20 total samples evaluated, 75% of samples had NTU above desirable limit while 10% samples each recorded TDS and EC above desirable limits.