Assessment of physico-chemical characteristics of water in Tamilnadu R. Udhayakumar a , P. Manivannan b,n , K. Raghu c , S. Vaideki d a Bharathidasan Institute of Technology, Anna University, Tiruchirappalli, Tamilnadu, India b IFET College of Engineering, Gangarampalayam, Villupuram 605108, Tamilnadu, India c Krishnasamy College of Engineering & Tech, Cuddalore, Tamilnadu, India d Tagore Engineering College, Rathinamangalam, Chennai 600127, Tamilnadu, India article info Article history: Received 9 December 2014 Received in revised form 16 May 2016 Accepted 11 July 2016 Keywords: Water quality Parameters Physiochemical study Pollution abstract Water is an important component to human life. The major aims of the present work are to assess the quality of the ground water and its impact in Villupuram District of Tamilnadu. The present study focus to bring an awareness among the people about the quality of ground water by taking water samples from various locations for Physico – Chemical analysis of the ground water. This analysis result was compared with the WHO, ICMR, USPH and European standards of drinking water quality parameters with the following water quality parameters namely pH, Electrical conductivity, Cl, , Na, K, Ca , Mg, Total dissolved solids, Total hardness, Dissolved oxygen, Fluoride etc. Various chemical methods have been employed to investigate the extent level of pollution in ground water. & 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Water probably is the most important natural resource in the world, life cannot exist and industries cannot operate without water. Unlike many other raw materials there is no substitute for water in many of its uses. Water resources are the most exploited of the nature. Pollution of water bodies is increasing steadily due to rapid industrialization and urbanization, and changing life styles. Water pollution may mean alteration in physical, chemical and biological characteristics of water. Pollutions from industrial, agricultural, urban, domestic, radioactive and mining sources, and these pollutants contaminated the water that become unfit for living communities. Addition of excess of undesirable substances to water that makes it harmful to man, animal and aquatic life. 1.1. Water quality Water quality can be assessed with the following TDS para- meters (American Public Health Association, 2005)(Table 1). World Health Organization (WHO) (1984, 1996) has given the guidelines to assess the drinking water quality (World Health Or- ganization (WHO), 1984)(Table 2). 1.2. Water for irrigation The chemical parameters that are important for water used in irrigation are: 1) Total dissolved solids sodium 2) Potassium 3) Calcium 4) magnesium Water less than 500 mg/lit is preferred and having TDS above 1500 mg/lit is not suitable for irrigation. The quality of surface water from rivers and lakes is important to industry. Water quality varies with location and seasons. Monitoring water quality is an essential activity for any industry that makes use of water sources. In view of variation expressed due to blending of water from dif- ferent bore well farms, there are instances where the industry experience changes in water quality on a day to day basis. For drinking water purpose, the range of pH value 6.5 and 8.5 is re- commended whereas the range can be slightly wider from 6.0 to 9.0 for irrigation purpose. 2. Experimental studies 2.1. Water samples The ground water samples have been collected from the fol- lowing 10 stations in and around Villupuram District of Tamilnadu. 1. Pidagam 2. Sengadu 3. Kappiampuliyur 4. Vaniampalayam 5. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ecoenv Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoenv.2016.07.014 0147-6513/& 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. n Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: udhaya0123@gmail.com (R. Udhayakumar), mani098@gmail.com (P. Manivannan), raghukpatham@gmail.com (K. Raghu). Please cite this article as: Udhayakumar, R., et al., Assessment of physico-chemical characteristics of water in Tamilnadu. Ecotoxicol. Environ. Saf. (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoenv.2016.07.014i Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety ∎ (∎∎∎∎) ∎∎∎–∎∎∎