Assessment of ground water quality in and around Lonar lake and possible water treatment

The present work is aimed at assessing the water quality of the groundwater in and around Lonar Lake. Water quality has been determined by collecting groundwater samples and subjecting the samples to a comprehensive physiochemical analysis. For assessing water quality, pH, total hardness, calcium, magnesium, bicarbonate, chloride, nitrate, sulphate, total dissolved solids, iron, manganese and fluorides have been considered. The higher values has been found to be mainly for Iron, Total hardness, chloride, fluoride, calcium and magnesium, many literature shown that groundwater quality in Lonar Taluka has been badly affected by nitrate contamination. The analysis reveals that the groundwater of the area needs some degree of treatment before consumption, and it also needs to be protected from the perils of contamination. Many different options are now in progress for treatment of water locally. Various community based programs have been tried in the past, but only few of these purely community run plants are successful. The future lies in providing safe drinking water in rural areas with a mixture of these options so that the objectives of providing safe water at low cost for sustaining over a long time and reaching to maximum number of people is achieved.