Water Conservation and Management (WCM) 3(1) (2019) 07-19 Cite The Article: Afif Ahmed, Abdul Nasir, Sana Basheer, Ch. Arslan, Shafiq Anwar (2019). Ground Water Quality Assessment By Using Geographical Information System And Water Quality Index: A Case Study Of Chokera, Faisalabad, Pakistan. Water Conservation and Management, 3(1): 07-19. ARTICLE DETAILS Article History: Received 24 November 2018 Accepted 25 December 2018 Available online 28 January 2019 ABSTRACT Water quality is considered as a major issue in mega cities of developing countries. The city of Faisalabad has over 4 million population. Groundwater is the main source of drinking water in Faisalabad. The groundwater quality should be regularly monitored in order to cope with the drinking water quality issues. An attempt has been made to understand the groundwater quality by using water quality index (WQI) at Chokera area, Faisalabad, Pakistan. It is a technique of rating water quality, is an effective tool to assess spatial and temporal changes in groundwater quality. Sixty groundwater samples were collected and analyzed for physico-chemical parameters using standard method of analysis. From the data obtained, the water quality index was calculated by adopting the method developed by Tiwari and Mishra. Water quality index rating was carried out to quantify overall ground water quality status of the area. The WQI index of the same has been calculated and the values ranged from 73 to 272. The WQI values from present study indicate the very poor water quality in the area. The analysis reveals the fact that the groundwater of the Chokera area needs a degree of treatment before consumption and needs to be protected from further contamination. KEYWORDS Groundwater quality, Water quality index, Waste water impact, GIS 1. INTRODUCTION Pakistan’s population at the time of independence was only 32.5 million and increased rapidly up to 184.35 million in 2013. This increasing trend in population poses serious threats on limited natural resources of country [1]. Depletion and deterioration of surface and ground water resources made Pakistan a water deficit country. This situation is due to shortage of surface storage and shift of fresh water use from agriculture to domestic as well as industrial use [2]. Improper disposal system of domestic and industrial wastewater causing serious threats for water resources and human health [3]. This situation is more critical in those urban and industrial areas where ground water deterioration caused various water-borne diseases and irremediable damage to environment. Groundwater is an important source of water supply throughout the world. Groundwater occurs almost everywhere beneath the earth surface not in a single widespread aquifer but in thousands of local aquifer systems and compartments that have similar characters. Knowledge of the occurrence, replenishment and recovery of groundwater has special significance in arid and semi-arid regions due to discrepancy in monsoonal rainfall, insufficient surface waters and over drafting of groundwater resources. The ground water quality is very important to the community, therefore it is important to ensure its high quality at all time so that the consumer’s health is not compromised. Groundwater resources are affected in principle by three major activities. First of these activities is excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides in agricultural areas. The second one is untreated/partially treated wastewater to the environment. Finally, excessive pumping and improper management of aquifers [4]. The activity of solid waste disposal in open un-engineered landfill is the one of the factors that cause the ground water pollution due to lack of pollution control interventions such as water proof layer, leachate treatment pond, monitoring wells, etc. [5]. Due to improper wastewater management, the wastewater seeps into the ground along with many chemicals and heavy metals. The same water we pump for drinking which is a main cause of many diseases. Besides, this water is also used for irrigation near the cities without any treatment. In this way, these chemicals and metals enter into our food chain through soil and crops resulting into many diseases such as blood pressure, liver and urinal cancer, blindness, skin cancer and mental stress. It is estimated that about 40% of diseases in Pakistan are caused by drinking of polluted water [6]. Water quality index (WQI) is defined as a rating reflecting the composite influence of different water quality parameters. A previous researcher has firstly used the concept of WQI, which was further developed by another researcher and improved by Deininger (Scottish Development Department, 1975) [7,8]. WQI is most effective tools to communicate information on the quality of any water body. WQI is a mathematical equation used to transform large number of water quality data into a Water Conservation & Management (WCM) DOI : http://doi.org/10.26480/wcm.01.2019.07.19 GROUND WATER QUALITY ASSESSMENT BY USING GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SYSTEM AND WATER QUALITY INDEX: A CASE STUDY OF CHOKERA, FAISALABAD, PAKISTAN Afif Ahmed * , Abdul Nasir, Sana Basheer, Ch. Arslan, Shafiq Anwar Department of Structures and Environmental Engineering, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan *Corresponding Author’s Email: afifahmed07@gmail.com This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ISSN: 2523-5664 (Print) ISSN: 2523-5672 (Online) CODEN: WCMABD RESEARCH ARTICLE