Iron in groundwater: quality evaluation, health risk, and spatial distribution in Rangpur City Corporation

High iron (Fe)–bearing groundwater in Bangladesh contaminates the groundwater aquifer with subsequent health risk. All the populations of Rangpur City Corporation (RpCC) depend on groundwater for their drinking, domestics, and irrigation purposes. This study investigates the concentration of Fe in groundwater of RpCC with special attention on the associated health risk of the dwellers residing in it. Stratified random sampling was adopted to collect 101 water samples from 33 wards of which each ward has 3 samples from tube well to identify Fe concentration using atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS). The data are analyzed following several statistical technique and compared with Bangladesh and WHO standard values. Maximum mean concentration was found in ward no. 11which is 1.620 mg/L and minimum mean concentration was found in ward no. 6 which is 0.006 mg/L. Single Factor Index (SFI) and Nemerow Index (NI) were applied to analyze the quality of groundwater for the whole data set. Hazard Quotient (HQ) and Hazard Index (HI) were used to assess health risk and it ensures that the females of the study area are more susceptible to iron health risk than the males. However, geostatistical analyses using ArcGIS-10.5 were used to show the spatial distribution and autocorrelation among several variables. Spatial distribution maps show important visualization for understanding Fe concentration zoning, distribution of quality indices, and health risk. The findings of this work will help the city corporation authority, environmental planner, and policymaker to understand the potential health risk due to Fe concentration.