Physicochemical characterization of groundwater of Ankleshwar Industrial Estate, Bharuch district, Gujarat, India

The study also underlines the importance of risk based groundwater use management. The use of untreated groundwater from identified hotspot areas is not recommended for direct drinking water supplies as a significant percentage of groundwater samples were found to be unsuitable for direct use and several toxic metals were found above their respective reference values. Treatment technologies should be determined by the contaminant profile found at each site. For instance, desalination, reverse osmosis, may be suitable when water quality of the groundwater has high TDS content and high salinity, and softening may be needed when the water quality of the groundwater is highly hard. If heavy metal contamination is present, appropriate adsorption, membrane, and/or precipitation options may be necessary. Importantly, communities relying on groundwater should have access to alternative safe water supplies where treatment is technically and/or economically challenging.

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