Drinking water quality in villages of southwestern Haryana, India: assessing human health risks associated with hydrochemistry

The chemical quality of groundwater of western Haryana, India was assessed for its suitability for drinking purposes. A total of 275 water samples were collected from deep aquifer based hand-pumps situated in 37 different villages/towns of Bhiwani region. The water samples were analyzed for different physico-chemical properties, e.g., pH, total dissolved solids (TDS), total harness (TH), total alkalinity (TA), calcium, magnesium, carbonate, bicarbonate, sulphate, chloride and fluoride concentrations. In this study, the average TDS content was greater ranging 1,692 (Bhiwani block) to 2,560 mg l(-1) (Siwani block), and other important parameters of water, e.g., TA (442-1,232 mg l(-1)), TH (437-864 mg l(-1)) and bicarbonate (554-672 mg l(-1)), were also higher than maximum permissible limit by WHO or BIS. The fluoride appeared as a major problem of safe drinking water in this region. We recorded greater fluoride concentration, i.e., 86.0 mg l(-1) from Motipura village that is highest fluoride level ever recorded for Haryana state. The average fluoride concentration ranged between 7.1 and 0.8 mg l(-1) in different blocks of western Haryana. On the basis of fluoride concentration, Siwani block showed the maximum number of water samples (84% of total collected samples) unsuitable for drinking purposes (containing fluoride > 1.5 mg l(-1)) followed by Charki Dadri block (58%), Bhiwani block (52%), Bawani Khera block (33%) and Loharu block (14%). This study clearly suggest that some health deteriorating chemicals in drinking water were at dangerous level and; therefore, water quality could be a major health threat for local residents of western Haryana. The high fluoride level in drinking water has posed some serious dental health risks in local residents.