Progressive deteriortaion of groundwater quality in Vrishabhavathi Valley Basin, Bangalore, India

Abstract

The present work aims to study the progressive deterioration of groundwater quality over a period of eight years, in and around the Vrishabhavathi Valley, an erstwhile fresh water stream, now carrying huge amounts of industrial, agricultural and domestic effluents from the western part of Bangalore metropolis. Groundwater samples were collected from both the borewells and open wells along the Vrishabhavathi valley watershed during April 2014 from the same sampling sites, that were chosen for the study in 2006 by these authors and subjected to a comprehensive physico-chemical analysis and water quality indices were worked out for the entire study area, both for the 2006 and the present data. The water quality indices have risen alarmingly and it has been found that nearly 67% of the samples are non-potable and it is seen that this number has risen sharply from 50 % non-potability in study 1 conducted in 2006. This clearly shows that there is a massive deterioration of water quality in the study span of 8 years, clearly reflecting the unabated and huge increase in the concentration of pollutants from municipal, industrial and agricultural sources that have been making their way to the groundwaters of Vrishabhavathi valley basin. The results imply that the groundwater of all the affected areas are completely unfit for human consumption and needs elaborate and appropriate treatment for improving its quality.