Multi-parametric groundwater quality and human health risk assessment vis-a-vis hydrogeochemical process in an Agri-intensive region of Indus basin, Punjab, India

The groundwater quality of the Indus basin of Punjab, India, is a serious concern due to the existence of toxic contaminants. Although, this contamination has been documented in some studies, some part of this basin is scantily explored. This is true for the Fazilka district of Malwa region, Punjab. In the present study, a total of 78 groundwater samples were collected from this district to evaluate their suitability for drinking and irrigation purpose, to understand the current hydrogeochemical processes involved and assess the human health risk status of the region. The results of the water quality index (WQI) revealed that majority of the groundwater samples were of poor quality with U, F-, SO42-, and NO3- exceeding the BIS limit in 60%, 94%, 43%, and 19% of samples, respectively. The groundwater geochemistry is mainly influenced by rock-water interaction. Ca-Mg-Cl water type is identified as the dominant hydrogeochemical facies, followed by Ca-Mg-SO42- and Na-Cl types. The Mg2+ and Na+ were identified as the major cations, while SO42- and HCO3- existed as the dominant anions. Furthermore, the results of Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Hierarchical cluster and Pearson correlation matrix (PCM) analyses corroborated the elevated level of U, F-, SO42- with geogenic activity supplemented with agrochemical activities. The annual effective intake dose of U exceeded the WHO recommended mean annual effective dose of U (100 mu Sv y(-1)) for all age groups with infants recording the highest dose of U (151 mu Sv y(-1)). Moreover, the non-cancer risk of U and F- exceeded the USEPA limit (HQ-1) in majority of the sites. The high cumulative risk of non-carcinogenic contaminants (HI-4.6) in the entire study area is a matter of grave concern.