Assessment of Potability of Minewater Pumped Out from Jharia Coalfield, India: An Integrated Approach Using Integrated Water Quality Index, Heavy Metal Pollution Index and Multivariate Statistics

Abstract

The dense and industrialized populace in the mining areas of Jharia Coalfield (JCF) is plagued by a severe shortage of water supply. The unutilized pumped out coal minewater discharges may be utilized to cater to the increasing water demand of the region but it runs the risk of getting contaminated from domestic and industrial effluents. The current study aimed to assess the suitableness of augmenting underground minewater for potable purposes. Minewater samples collected from 15 locations (minewater treatment plants) across JCF for the hydrological year 2019-2020 were analysed to gain an insight on the physico-chemical characteristics of the minewater using an integrated approach of standard hydrochemical methods, Integrated Water Quality Index (IWQI), Heavy metal Pollution Index (HPI) and Multivariate Statistical Analysis. The integrated approach gives a holistic assessment of the minewater quality, overcoming the limitations of traditional water quality indices, to give a more accurate assessment. The analysis of minewater in the region identified Ca–Mg–HCO3 and Ca–Mg–Cl–SO4 as the two major water types. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA) of the minewater revealed the influence of lithogenic and anthropogenic processes in modulating the water chemistry of the region. This study could facilitate effective water quality management practices while also laying the foundation for augmenting minewater for potable purposes to meet increasing demands.

Multidecadal assessment of environmental variables in the river Ganga for pollution monitoring and sustainable management

“…All the statistical analyses were performed with Microsoft Excel 2007, PAST 4.03, and IBM-SPSS 22 software. The descriptive analysis such as mean and standard deviation is the conventional tool used for the analysis of water quality data (Mazinder Baruah & Singh, 2022;Mustapha et al, 2013) was done using Microsoft Excel 2007. To know the relationship between WQI and the assigned quality scale used in the calculation of WQI, the Karl Pearson correlation was done using IBM SPSS 22 statistical software.…”