Evaluation of the Surface Water Quality Index of Jharia Coal Mining Region and Its Management of Surface Water Resources

Abstract

In this paper, the level of surface water contamination near the mine site is examined of Jharia coal field, Jharkhand. A modified Water quality index was used to determine the change in surface water quality. A total of 18 surface water samples were collected from different mining area of the study area. The domination of cations and anions was in the order of Ca2+ > Mg2+ > Na+ > K for cations and HCO3 > SO42- > Cl- anions. Nine parameters have been considered for calculating the WQI such as: pH, total hardness, calcium, magnesium, bicarbonate, chloride, nitrate, sulphate and total dissolved solids. The computed WQI shows that 17% of Good category and 22% falls in very poor category and most of the sample fall in poor category 61% overall percentage of the Surface Water. Such waters are not suitable for drinking purposes under normal condition and further action for salinity control is required. The high value of WQI at this site has been found to be mainly due to the higher values of TDS, Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, K+, HCo3- and SO42- where it was found that there is a very high correlation coefficient between them. On careful examination of the data it was found that most of the water quality parameters were beyond the desired limit prescribed by BIS, making the water unsafe for human consumption.