ASSESMENT OF WATER QUALITY IN PEENYA INDUSTRIAL AREA, BANGALORE

Abstract

The rapidity of industrialization that has recently become the need of the hour, for a developing country like India has turned into a major source of groundwater contamination. Huge inputs of pollutants from the industries have been taking the pollutant levels beyond the prescribed tolerable limits. The industries that induce the pollutants into the surface and groundwater sources from their activities do not strictly regulate their pollutant to safe limits. Many industries discharge their effluents without any proper treatment into nearby open pits or pass them through unlined channels, which move towards the low lying depressions on land, resulting in the contamination of groundwater and surface water sources. The industrial effluents, if not treated to remove or bring pollutant concentration level below standards specified, can pollute and cause serious damage to the surface and groundwater resources. The present study aims at evaluating the chemical characterization of Surface and Ground-water present in Peenya industrial area, Bangalore city in India. Surface and Groundwater samples from 40 distinct locations in the industrial area were collected. Analytical procedures as described in the Standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater were implemented for chemical analysis of these samples and the results were compared with the Bureau of Indian Standards (IS 10500) guideline values for potable water, in order to evaluate the possibility of health hazards in the study area. The results reveal that most of the study area is highly polluted, because of the excessive concentration of one or more water quality parameters such as pH, Total Hardness, Total Dissolved Solids, Dissolved Oxygen, Salinity, Alkalinity, Acidity and Electrical Conductivity. It is evident that more than 50 percent of water samples are non potable as per Bureau of Indian standards (IS 10500).