Studies on the groundwater quality from six villages of Hatkanangale Taluka, Kolhapur district

It is a known fact that clean water is completely essential for healthy living. Yet there is a scenario that millions of people worldwide are deprived of this due to over exploitation, poor management system and by ecological degradation. As groundwater is one of the important source of drinking water, it has also has failed to escape from the pollution. In recent decades, outcome of many reports of groundwater contamination have took place. Since water quality is of a vital concern, a study based on assessment of groundwater quality with respect to certain parameters was carried out. Samples from bore wells were investigated for parameters such as iron, fluoride, chloride and nitrate content. The samples were collected from the six villages of Hatkanangale taluka, district Kolhapur. Hatkanangale is situated 20 kms to the East of Kolhapur. Apart from river Panchaganga, people here are mostly dependent on groundwater for drinking purpose. Water samples were collected from three different sites of each of the six villages. The collected water samples were analyzed. From the analytical results, it was revealed that the values of certain parameters were within the limit while some were exceeding. Especially one of the site in the village named Rendal showed exceeding limits of nitrate and iron which was about 48 mg/l and 2.8 mg/l respectively beyond standard limits. Fluctuations in the values of the parameters were due to certain environmental factors as well as due to unplanned anthropogenic activities. The results are discussed.