Characterization of groundwater quality using water evaluation indices, multivariate statistics and geostatistics in central Bangladesh

This study investigates the groundwater quality in the Faridpur district of central Bangladesh based on preselected 60 sample points. Water evaluation indices and a number of statistical approaches such as multivariate statistics and geostatistics are applied to characterize water quality, which is a major factor for controlling the groundwater quality in term of drinking purposes. The study reveal that EC, TDS, Ca2+, total As and Fe values of groundwater samples exceeded Bangladesh and international standards. Ground water quality index (GWQI) exhibited that about 47% of the samples were belonging to good quality water for drinking purposes. The heavy metal pollution index (HPI), degree of contamination (Cd), heavy metal evaluation index (HEI) reveal that most of the samples belong to low…