Integrated Approach to Hydrogeochemical Appraisal and Quality Assessment of Groundwater from Chunian Tehsil, District Kasur Pakistan

Abstract

People all over the world using water for many purposes like economic, industrial, and household use. The availability and quality of groundwater is necessary because contaminated groundwater can cause serious health problems. In Pakistan mostly the groundwater is contaminated with Arsenic which is a heavy metal and its presence in groundwater can cause serious threat for human health. In this Study groundwater quality assessment is done for drinking and agriculture uses in terms of arsenic concentration as well as health risk assessment is done due to Arsenic exposure in Tehsil chunian.85 groundwater samples were collected from different locations of tehsil chunian out of which 50 are functional. The results show that most of the groundwater samples lie within the given range of WHO. The concentration of Arsenic with an average value 8.78 ppb ranges from 0.22 – 24.13 ppb and about 47% of the groundwater samples exceed the given limit of WHO. The Gibbs plot indicate that the major controlling factor that change the groundwater chemistry is Rock dominance and some of the samples also lie in evaporation crystallization dominance. The health risk assessment is done by Average daily dose (ADD), Hazard quotient (HQ) and Carcinogenic risk (CR). 42.9% of the samples exceeds the allowed limit of Hazard quotient which is HQ>1 which indicate that people are at higher risk due to the Arsenic contamination in drinking water therefore proper monitoring and management of groundwater in Chunian tehsil is necessary.