Assessment of Water Quality Using Modified Water Quality Index and Geographical Information System in Madathukulam Taluk, Tiruppur District, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract

The present investigation is an extensive study of surface and ground water quality of Madathukulam taluk, Tiruppur District, Tamil Nadu, India, to estimate the quality of water using Modified Water Quality Index (MWQI) and Geographic Information System (GIS) technique. In this study 35 water samples from Open well, Bore well, River, Lake and Pond were analysed for the physicochemical parameters like pH, temperature, total phosphate, total nitrate, turbidity, total dissolved solids, dissolved oxygen, biological oxygen demand, faecal coliform, electrical conductivity, total hardness, chloride, fluoride, sodium and potassium. The resulting values were computed to investigate the quality of water using geographic information system and water quality index and compared with the standard drinking water guidelines proposed by the WHO (2017) and BIS (2012) for drinking and agricultural purpose. Inverse distance weighted (IDW) interpolation technique was used for preparing the spatial distribution maps for each physiochemical parameter. The analytical result signifies that 40% of the study areas are slightly acidic. GIS based water quality index shows that 63% of the area has recorded with good quality water, while the remaining 37% are of medium quality of water. The MWQI proved to be a useful method to classify the water similar to NSF-WQI in Madathukulam Taluk.