Department of Environmental Studies, North-Eastern Hill University, Umshing, Shillong 793022, Meghalaya, India
Groundwater is an imperative source of drinking water. It has become an alternative source for domestic and irrigational uses at present in most places, due to insufficient availability of clean surface water. In West Jaintia Hills, Meghalaya; due to limited availability and supply of potable water, increasing number of households has started using groundwater from dug wells for drinking and other domestic purposes. No information is available on the quality of water used by the people from these dug wells. Therefore, the study was carried out with an objective to generate information about the quality status of the groundwater in the area. Assessment of groundwater quality was done from five different dug wells of Ummulong village. The groundwater samples were found to be acidic in nature and rich in iron concentrations. Otherwise, the values of other physicochemical parameters studied were found within the permissible limit prescribed by BIS. Water Quality index (WQI) evaluation recorded that index value of WQI ranged from 29.74 to 49.66 during October, 2013 and 27.51 to 47.01 during February, 2014. Findings revealed that although dug well water samples were found acidic and rich in iron content but fall under good water characteristics considering other parameters.
Groundwater quality, water parameters, WQI, West Jaintia hills, Meghalaya
