An Integrated Indexical Assessment of Groundwater Quality of Sukkur City, Pakistan

Abstract

Groundwater contamination issues are rising globally, including the Sukkur, Sindh, Pakistan. Due to gravity of the problem and concerns of the people of Sukkur City, the present study was planned to assess the quality of groundwater of Sukkur City based on an integrated indexical approach, i.e., the water quality index (WQI) model. The WQI was calculated using analysis results of various physicochemical parameters of thirty (30) georeferenced groundwater samples randomly collected from the study area. Groundwater samples were analyzed for various physical and chemical parameters such as pH, electrical conductivity (EC), turbidity, total dissolved solids (TDS), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), total hardness (TH), chlorides, nitrates, nitrites, etc. The observed level of pH in the groundwater samples of the study area ranged in between 7.6 to 8.8. The chloride concentration ranged between 32 to 2280 mg/l. The calcium level ranged between 8 to 440 mg/l. The magnesium concentration observed between 32 to 1710 mg/l The total hardness level ranged between 40 to 2150 mg/l. The EC and TDS ranged between 0.28 to 8.13 dS/m, and between 180 to 5200 mg/l respectively. The estimations of the WQI model showed that 2% of the water samples were excellent, 52% good, 22% poor, and 24% unsuitable for drinking purpose. Overall water quality analysis indicated that some of the areas of the Sukkur city have poor quality groundwater, thus it should be treated before its use for domestic purposes.