Assessment of Groundwater Quality of Bijnor District, India using Water Quality Index
In the present paper, geochemical characteristics of groundwater have been studied using Water Quality Index (WQI) and Piper trilinear diagram. The water quality index offers a quantitative representation of overall quality of water for any intended use and helps in pollution abatement programmes and management. Whereas, the Piper diagram shows graphical representation of the hydrochemical facies of a set of water samples. In the present work, twenty-five groundwater samples were collected from various locations in the Bijnor district. The samples were investigated for pH, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids, carbonate, bicarbonate, chloride, sulphate, nitrate, nitrite, phosphate, calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, total hardness, fluoride and trace metals. The Piper trilinear diagram showed ++ - that groundwater of the district is Ca-Mg-HCO type. Ca and HCO were found dominant ions among cations and 3 3 anions, respectively. The WQI was found in the range of 71 to 86, which indicated that the samples fall under the fair to good category. Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) checks were also applied to examine the water quality for the drinking purpose. The results revealed that most of the water quality parameters are within the permissible limits except iron and manganese. Based on the results, groundwater of the Bijnor district needs treatment for drinking purpose for the locations where the WQI is found below 75.