Assessment of water quality pollution indices and distribution of heavy metals in drinking water in Ramganga aquifer, Bareilly District Uttar Pradesh, India

The hydrochemistry of the groundwater has been determined for the samples collected from the Ramganga aquifer, Bareilly district.The piper diagram reveals that the majority of groundwater samples fall in Ca -Mg2+-HCO32-). The groundwater samples are highly contaminated with higher concentration of trace elements that are beyond the permissible limits for drinking purposes. It is observed that heavy metal concentration show the variability with Landuse categories, seasonal change and groundwater depth. Highest concentration of heavy metals is found in semi urban areas except Zn. The sources of heavy metals were assessed using temporal-spatial fluctuations in heavy metal concentration and elemental alliances. Heavy metals do not show strong relationships for the most of the Landuse categories except in urban areas and particularly in post monsoon season. It is also found that the concentration of metal increased during the processes of recharge in most of the cases. Heavy metal pollution indices were calculated for drinking purposes using the CDx, HPI and HEI models. Maximum indices values are found in rural areas and semi urban sample in Pre-monsoon and Post monsoon season respectively. However, the lowest indices values were observed for deep water samples in urban areas.