Title: Spatial and temporal variations in quality of drinking water sources of Dehradun district in India

Authors: Shweta Tyagi; Prashant Singh; Rajendra Dobhal; D.P. Uniyal; Bhavtosh Sharma; Rakesh Singh

Addresses: Department of Chemistry, DAV (PG) College, Dehradun-248 001, Uttarakhand, India ' Department of Chemistry, DAV (PG) College, Dehradun-248 001, Uttarakhand, India ' Uttarakhand State Council for Science and Technology, Dehradun-248 006, Uttarakhand, India ' Uttarakhand State Council for Science and Technology, Dehradun-248 006, Uttarakhand, India ' Uttarakhand Science, Education and Research Center, Dehradun-248 006, Uttarakhand, India ' Department of Chemistry, DBS (PG) College, Dehradun-248 001, Uttarakhand, India

Abstract: Hydrochemical characters of drinking water sources of Dehradun district of Uttarakhand state in India were assessed by analysing the various water quality constituents. Analysed water quality was interpreted by various statistical and other techniques like box and whisker plots, ANOVA analysis, piper diagram and water quality index (WQI). In the study, piper diagram illustrates that majority of samples fall in Ca-Mg-HCO₃ hydrochemical facies, whereas some samples also show the dominant presence of Ca-Mg-Cl-SO₄ ions. Graphical method of statistical analysis i.e., box and whisker plots indicates that significant seasonal variation was considered among the various seasons for most of the water quality parameters. Furthermore, ANOVA analysis also confirmed the results of the largest variation between the seasons as compared to between the sites. Considerable variation in water quality may be due to the geogenic and anthropogenic influence on the drinking water quality parameters. Moreover, WQI describes the suitability of all the sources for drinking purpose except two sources, which have unsuitable (Grade-E water) and poor (Grade-C water) water quality.

Keywords: box and whisker plots; piper diagram; hydrochemical characteristics; water quality; spatial variations; temporal variations; drinking water; water pollution; India; ANOVA; seasonal variations.

DOI: 10.1504/IJETM.2015.073070

International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management, 2015 Vol.18 No.5/6, pp.375 - 399

Accepted: 15 Mar 2015
Published online: 16 Nov 2015 *

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