Influence of groundwater quality on human health and its suitability for drinking and irrigation uses: a review

ABSTRACT

Quality of groundwater plays a vital role in the protection and sustainable development of a country, which also reflects on the human health. Groundwater in the industrial zone of arid and semi-arid regions contains more minerals such as calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium and contains excess concentrations of heavy metals, namely As, Ni, Cu, Cd, Cr, etc., which can cause carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risk for health. The present review aims to assess the source of contamination of groundwater, health effects and novel technique to evaluate the risk due to carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic factors, which cause cancer and serious health effects in human. The effective tools namely geographical information system (GIS) and AMOS software were used to determine the spatial distribution of various minerals and to perform statistical analysis of groundwater parameters. In addition, the study reveals the water quality assessment indices developed over the years and its applicability in various environmental conditions and it also reveals the effectiveness of integrated method analysis of GIS and AMOS in the field of water resources management. This review detailed about the temporary solution for reducing heavy metals in groundwater, such as reverse osmosis, ion exchanged activated alumina, activated carbon, distillation and nanoparticle filtration to treat the contaminated groundwater in the arid and semi-arid regions.

KEYWORDS:

• Groundwater
• heavy metals
• carcinogenic
• non-carcinogenic
• health risk assessment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).