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Punjab is facing a crisis situation due to high levels of uranium, arsenic and selenium in underground water table of Punjab. Malwa belt of Punjab, namely, Ludhiana, Ferozepur, Roop Nagar and Fatehgarh sahib districts have high selenium contents in groundwater. Selenium Acceptable Limit (AL) for groundwater is fixed at 0.01 mg/l (ppm) by the Bureau...
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... ARSENIC occurrence and distribution in groundwater of different states of India ( Figure 1) have been of wide interest since the 1980s (refs 1-3). We have previously studied groundwater contamination caused by uranium and other heavy metals [4][5][6][7][8] . Health risk analysis due to fluoride and arsenic in the groundwater of Patiala and Roopnagar districts respectively, has been reported recently 9,10 . ...
Arsenic is widespread in groundwater in India. High levels of arsenic in the three districts of Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Tarn Taran (also called Majha belt) have caused a crisis in Punjab. According to the Indian Council of Agriculture Research report, 13 districts of Punjab have arsenic content beyond the safety limit. This study aims to estimate probable health hazards due to ingestion of water with high levels of arsenic in the groundwater of Majha belt. Analysis of groundwater samples done using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry were collected from the Department of Water Supply and Sanitation, Government of Punjab, Mohali. The highest arsenic contamination of 111 ppb was found in the groundwater of Amritsar district, followed by Gurdaspur and Tarn Taran districts. The average value of hazard quotient (HQ) for children and adults in Amritsar district is estimated to be 11.13 and 8.0 respectively. HQ values for all the 650 habitations surveyed in the Majha belt of Punjab are greater than 1, which is a matter of concern because of high-risk potential for developing adverse carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic health hazards. The predicted values for cancer induction in children and adults of Amritsar district are 500 and 360 per million respectively. Miti-gation of arsenic in groundwater is an urgent need in the Majha belt of Punjab.
... In fact, most of our earlier investigations were focussed on uranium contamination of groundwater and its health hazards [3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. Arsenic and selenium contamination of groundwater of Majha, Malwa and Doaba belts of Punjab was also reported [10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. In this paper, the author is presenting a comprehensive study of contamination of groundwater in the whole of Punjab due to heavy metals arsenic, selenium and uranium. ...
Punjab is facing a crisis situation due to high levels of heavy metals in underground water table of Punjab. ICAR has reported arsenic beyond safe limit in 13 districts of Punjab. According to PWSSD report, out of all arsenic contaminated habitations in Punjab, 60% fall in Majha belt of Punjab, namely, Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Tarn Taran districts. Arsenic contamination can be get rid of by using a nanotechnology based technique called AMRIT (Arsenic and Metal Removal by Indian Technology). Doaba belt of Punjab, namely, Jallandhar, Kapurthala and Hoshiarpur districts have high selenium contents in groundwater. Acceptable limit (AL) for arsenic and selenium in groundwater is fixed at 0.01 mg/l (ppm) by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). The highest number of villages with arsenic and selenium contamination of groundwater above the AL falls in the Amritsar and Jallandhar districts, respectively. The health hazard effects of arsenic, selenium and uranium are discussed on the basis of studies carried out in the USA, China and India. Uranium poisoning is rampant in the Malwa belt of Punjab. In this report, groundwater quality data pertaining to arsenic, selenium and uranium, are reported and measures for their mitigation are discussed.
In the present work, we study the Fe-MoF utilization for selenium (IV) removal and have optimized removal parameters to achieve better efficiency.The Fe-MOFs is studied in reference toinfluence of pH, preliminary selenite levels, time of contact, adsorbent dosage, etc., on the selenium removal efficacy. The selenium quantification is done with ion chromatography coupled with conductivity detector. The study reveals that Fe-MOF could significantly remove selenite in aqueous condition under optimized pH of 7 and removal time of 4 hours. The present finding thus presents a new media for selenium remediation from water.
A study was carried out to assess the groundwater quality of Ferozepur district for drinking purpose. Grid based, 604 groundwater samples were collected from November 2021 to April 2022 and GPS location of each was recorded. The water samples were analysed for pH, EC, TDS, TH, Ca ²⁺ , Mg ²⁺ , Na ⁺ , K ⁺ , Cl ⁻ , F ⁻ , NO 3 ⁻ , SO 4 ²⁻ , HCO 3 ⁻ , As, B, Se, Cr, Ni, Pb, Fe, Cu, Zn and Mn. The spatial variability maps for all these parameters were developed using ArcGIS software. Considering these parameters, groundwater quality was evaluated w.r.t drinking purpose. It was observed that parameters TDS, TH, Na ⁺ , K ⁺ , Mg ²⁺ , HCO 3 ⁻ , NO 3 ⁻ , SO 4 ²⁻ , F ⁻ , B, As and Se were above their respective acceptable limits for drinking purpose. Among different blocks of Ferozepur district, Ghall Khurd was the most affected block with a considerable number of water samples not suitable for drinking purpose and Mamdot was the least affected one. However, the groundwater was not polluted with heavy metals as the heavy metal pollution index was < 25 for 99% of the groundwater samples.
