Abstract

Water is an essential natural resource for sustaining life and environment but over the last few decades the water quality has been deteriorated due to its over exploitation Water quality is essential parameter to be studied when the overall focus is sustainable development keeping mankind at focal point Groundwater is the major source of drinking water in rural as well as in urban areas and over 94 of the drinking water demand is met by groundwater The study has been carried out to assess the ground water quality and its suitability for drinking purpose in most rural habitations of Bassi tehsil of Jaipur district Rajasthan India For this purpose 50 water samples being collected from hand pumps open wells and bore wells of villages of study area were analysed for different physicochemical parameters such as pH electrical conductivity total alkalinity total hardness calcium hardness magnesium hardness chloride nitrate fluoride and total dissolved solids pH value in the study area found from 6 3 to 8 7 EC ranges from 1100-16000 mhos cm and total alkalinity between 70 to 990 mg L Total hardness ranged from 30 to 980 mg L and calcium hardness from 10 to 480 mg L Magnesium hardness varied from 20 to 500 mg L and chloride from 20 to 3620 mg L Values of nitrate concentration varied from 9 to 224 mg L and fluoride from 0 28 to 11 5 mg L while value of TDS ranges from 770 to 11200 mg L The study reveals that almost all parameters were exceeding the permissible limits As per the desirable and maximum permissible limit for fluoride and nitrate in drinking water determined by WHO BIS and ICMR standards 64 and 42 of groundwater sources are unfit for drinking purposes respectively Due to the higher fluoride level in drinking water the several cases of dental and skeletal fluorosis have appeared at alarming rate in this region After evaluating the data of this study it is concluded that drinking water of Bassi tehsil is not potable and there is a