Assessment of groundwater pollution due to textile industrial activities in and around Tirupur Region, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract

Groundwater is the most important resource for human consumption and the support of habitat and for maintaining the feature of base flow to river courses, while its quality is necessary to ensure sustainable safe exploit of the resources for all purposes. The untreated or inappropriate industrial effluents discharge on the surface causes harsh groundwater pollution in the industrial area of the nation. Sixty groundwater samples have been collected from boreholes and water samples were analysed to examine the groundwater quality of Avinashi-Tirupur-Palladam region. The samples were examined for the physico-chemical parameters like pH, electrical conductivity (EC) and total dissolved solids (TDS), major cations like calcium (Ca2+), magnesium (Mg2+), sodium (Na+), potassium (K+) and major anions like bicarbonate (HCO3-), carbonate (CO32-), chloride (Cl-), nitrate (NO3-) and sulphate (SO42-), along with fluoride. The abundance of major cations and anions was investigated. Spatial distribution map based on total dissolved solids indicates that the Noyyal and Nallar river basins, central regions of the study area, are more affected. The chemical parameter data of groundwater samples of the study area are plotted in Gibbs's diagram. Based on the Piper diagram, different water types were identified. Hydro-chemically, the quality of the groundwater for human consumption was determined. The ion concentration distribution indicates that most of the groundwater sample locations in the study area are not suitable for domestic use.