Physico-chemical analysis of underground water in some areas of Pathankot District, Punjab, India

Water is an indispensable and precious resource which occurs naturally in our environment. Due to increasing population and urbanization, the water is extracted from the ground on a large scale. This exploitation of water has affected its quantity as well as quality. Since most of the population depends upon natural underground water, it must be assured that they receive a good quality of water otherwise they might face serious health issues. Our present survey for analysing physico-chemical properties of water involves mostly urban area of Pathankot district. The sources of the collected water samples are bore-wells of varying depths. The total dissolved solids in water are in the range of 162-525 ppm which is within the prescribed limit (600ppm) by World Health Organisation (WHO). The uranium values are very low in this area falling in the range of 0.1-5.6μg/l which is within the safe limits prescribed by WHO (30μg/l). Hence we conclude that all the collected water samples fall within the safe limits and can be used for drinking and various other household purposes. (author)