Groundwater quality assessment in the village of Lutfullapur Nawada, Loni, District Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India

The groundwater quality for drinking, domestic and irrigation in the village Lutfullapur Nawada, Loni, district Ghaziabad, U.P., India, has been assessed. Groundwater samples were collected, processed and analyzed for temperature, pH, conductivity, salinity, total alkalinity, carbonate alkalinity, bicarbonate alkalinity, total hardness, calcium hardness, magnesium hardness, total solids, total dissolved solids, total suspended solids, nitrate-nitrogen, chloride, fluoride, sulfate, phosphate, silica, sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, total chromium, cadmium, copper, iron, nickel, lead and zinc. A number of groundwater samples showed levels of electrical conductivity (EC), alkalinity, chloride, calcium, sodium, potassium and iron exceeding their permissible limits. Except iron, the other metals (Cr, Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn) were analyzed below the permissible limits. The correlation matrices for 28 variables were performed. EC, salinity, TS and TDS had significant positive correlations among themselves and also with NO3−, Cl−, alkalinity, Na+, K+, and Ca2+. Fluoride was not significantly correlated with any of the parameters. NO3− was significantly positively correlated with Cl−, alkalinity, Na+, K+ and Ca2+. Chloride also correlated significantly with alkalinity, Na+, K+ and Ca2+. Sodium showed a strong and positive correlation with K+ and Ca2+. pH was negatively correlated with most of the physicochemical parameters. This groundwater is classified as a normal sulfate and chloride type. Base-exchange indices classified 73% of the groundwater sources as the Na+-SO42− type. The meteoric genesis indices demonstrated that 67% of groundwater sources belong to a deep meteoric water percolation type. Hydrochemical groundwater evaluations revealed that most of the groundwaters belong to the Na+-K+-Cl−-SO42− type followed by Na+-K+-HCO3− type. Salinity, chlorinity and SAR indices indicated that majority of groundwater samples can be considered suitable for irrigation purposes.