Physicochemical investigation of groundwater within the confinement of Sargodha city and remediation pathways for contaminants

Abstract

Groundwater contamination in Sargodha city is a significant concern, with organic, inorganic, radioactive, and biological contaminants that pose critical challenges to public health and water security. The study focuses on investigating the physicochemical properties of the groundwater in Sargodha city to identify and address pollutants affecting the groundwater quality, covering a large spatial region for accurate assessment. For this study, groundwater was collected from 35 locations in Sargodha city in the dry season. The analysis of which displayed extreme mineralization, with high electrical conductivity, EC (mean 11,052.68 μS/cm) and extreme total hardness, TH (mean 757.40 mg/L), critical oxygen depletion with dissolved oxygen, DO (mean 2.87 mg/L) and highly alkaline conditions due to high pH (mean 7.54) and elevated total alkalinity, TA (mean 202.66 mg/L), and large amount of organic matter evident from the coexisting high turbidity (mean 3.74 NTU). The water quality index (WQI) evaluation reveals nuanced groundwater quality risks, with 28.6 % of the water unsuitable for drinking, 28.6 % in very poor condition, 37.1 % in poor condition, and only the remaining 5.7 % in good condition; however, no groundwater has an excellent quality status. This deterioration pattern of groundwater quality strongly correlates with urbanization and industrial zones, indicating clear anthropogenic contamination routes. The water quality issues in the city need to be further researched to understand the root cause, and decisive actions could be taken to solve them.