Spatial appraisal of groundwater quality for drinking purposes: A case study of a Union in Kalihati Upazila, Bangladesh

With the aim of improving public health interventions, this study was conducted to ensure sustainable groundwater quality by adopting Geographical Information System (GIS) and Water Quality Index (WQI) for drinking purposes in Paikara Union, Kalihati Upazila of Bangladesh. Fifteen groundwater samples were randomly collected from different hand tubewells in April 2019 and analyzed for pH, electrical conductivity (EC), total dissolved solids (TDS), total hardness (TH), major cations and anions. Almost all physicochemical parameters fell within the acceptable limit of Bangladesh and international standards, though a few samples exceeded the standard limit considering As3+, Fe3+ and PO_4^(3-) concentrations. The spatial distribution of the quality parameters across the study area was depicted employing ArcGIS 10.5 software; therein it was revealed that slightly…