Occurrence of Nitrate and Fluoride in Groundwater and Their Impact on Mathadi Vagu Basin in Adilabad District, Andhra Pradesh, India

Kamal Das. K; Muralidhar. M; Sundaraiah. R; Laxman Kumar. D

Volume : III, Issue : VI, June - 2014

Occurrence of Nitrate and Fluoride in Groundwater and Their Impact on Mathadi Vagu Basin in Adilabad District, Andhra Pradesh, India

Kamal Das. K, Muralidhar. M, Sundaraiah. R, Laxman Kumar. D

Abstract :

A detailed study was carried out to assess the groundwater quality in Mathadi vagu basin, Adilabad district, Andhra Pradesh, India. The study area lies between North latitudes 19�50\'48 & 20�13\'30 and East longitudes 78�28\'25 & 78�58\'00 with an area extent of 525 sq. kms. Samples were collected from 37 wells used for domestic, agricultural and industrial purposes. Groundwater samples were collected from these wells during the month of December, 2011 and analyzed for all the major constituents. The samples were collected from the wells located in both phreatic and deeper fractured zones. The analytical results revealed that the groundwater in the major part of the area is highly mineralized with high concentrations of Nitrate and Fluoride. Out of 37 ground water samples analyzed, 31 samples were found to have nitrate concentration more than 45mg/l. The maximum concentration of nitrate in the area is 407.4 mg/l. The concentration of nitrate in excess of the permissible limit i.e., 45 mg/I in drinking water causes methaemoglobinemia, particularly in infants. The concentration of fluoride also exceeded the permissible limit of 1.50 mg/l in 7 percent of the total samples analyzed. Fluoride concentration in excess of 1.5 mg/l in drinking water causes dental and skeletal fluorosis. The highest value of fluoride concentrated in the area is 4.5 mg/l. These two constituents, at very high concentrations, constitute a potential risk for the inhabitants that consume these waters. The occurrence of nitrate and fluoride in the study area, their genesis, and role in metabolism, health effects and the factors controlling the chemistry of these constituents in groundwater are discussed in this paper.