Determination of water quality index of the ground water in the villages of the Kothacheruvu mandal, Anantapur district, Andhra Pradesh, India on a GIS platform

There has been an unprecedented increase in groundwater withdrawal around the world on account of tremendous agricultural and industrial expansion leading to severe degradation of groundwater quality and quantity. There is an imminent need to implement efficient water management systems aided by effective water quality monitoring programs. Tools like Water Quality Index (WQI) which represents the combined influence of individual water quality parameters supported by the Geographical Information System (GIS) helps the environmentalists and policy makers to make effective predictions and decisions. The objective of the current study was to monitor, evaluate and classify the water types based on WQI and GIS mapping to assess the drinking water quality in Kothacheruvu mandal of Anantapur District, Andhra Pradesh. The physico-chemical analysis of bore-well water samples were done and compared with the drinking water standards set by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). The latitude and longitude of the sampling location were taken to develop geospatial maps on the GIS platform. Fluoride and Nitrate were found to be the main contaminants in the region. WQI calculations revealed that 83.3% of the groundwater in the study area was unfit for drinking purpose without appropriate water pre-treatment.