Assessment of Groundwater Quality in Five Different Districts of Rajasthan: Focus On Important Chemical and Bacteriological Parameters

Assessment of groundwater quality was carried out in Jodhpur, Jaipur, Ajmer, Alwar, Pali and Udaipur city of Rajasthan. Water samples were collected from five different locations of each district. Samples collected were analyzed for important chemical parameters like pH, Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), nitrate, fluoride and bacteriological qualities like total and fecal coliforms. Due to deficiency in surface water sources, groundwater is a major source of domestic, industrial and irrigation water requirements of Rajasthan, hence, it is important to test its quality. Calculations of correlation coefficients were performed for the various parameters. The measured parameters showed spatial variations and most of them did not match the Indian Standards for water quality at several locations. Pali and Jodhpur district had very high fluoride concentration in every location. Only Jaipur district have BOD less than 1 mg/l for all of the locations. There were many locations in each of the district which had concentrations larger even than 3.5 mg/l except Alwar. Jodhpur and Udaipur showed maximum concentration of nitrate 19.6 mg/l and 11.2 mg/l respectively. All locations of every district had fecal coliform value more than one. There was huge variation in the value of Total coliform number from one district to other and even in locations. Statistical analysis showed that there was no definite correlation between any parameter.