Toxic metal ions in water and their prevalence
in Uttarakhand, India
Vinod Kumar Gupta, Rajendra Dobhal, Arunima Nayak, Shilpi Agarwal,
Devi Prasad Uniyal, Prashant Singh, Bhavtosh Sharma, Shweta Tyagi
and Rakesh Singh
ABSTRACT
Developmental activities, geological reasons and mixing of industrial wastes are responsible for the
deteriorating quality of surface and ground water in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand. The
drinking water sources of 13 districts of Uttarakhand have been assessed for the presence of four
toxic metal ions (arsenic, cadmium, chromium and lead). The health aspects of the four metal ions
have also been reviewed according to the prescribed limits set up by the Bureau of Indian Standards
(BIS) and World Health Organization (WHO). The present study reveals the absence of arsenic at
almost all stations. Cadmium has been found only at Rudrapur, whereas chromium is found to be
present in more than prescribed limits, in Kolti, Mussoorie and Dehradun. Significant presence of
lead in the six districts of the state is indicative of the fact that proper management strategy of toxic
metal ion remediation is required. Chromium and lead have exceeded the prescribed limit in 1.3 and
4.5% samples, respectively. However, as per BIS standard, cadmium is higher than the prescribed
limit in 0.6% samples but according to the WHO standard, cadmium has exceeded in about 26%
samples. Out of the total 156 samples analyzed, 6.4 and 33.3% samples have been found to possess
the toxic metal ions in more than the prescribed limits as per BIS and WHO guidelines, respectively.
Vinod Kumar Gupta (corresponding author)
Arunima Nayak
Shilpi Agarwal
Department of Chemistry,
Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee,
Roorkee 247 667, India
E-mail: vinodfcy@gmail.com
Rajendra Dobhal
Devi Prasad Uniyal
Uttarakhand State Council for Science and
Technology,
Dehradun 248 001(UK), India
Prashant Singh
Bhavtosh Sharma
Shweta Tyagi
Department of Chemistry,
DAV (PG) College,
Dehradun 248 001(UK), India
Rakesh Singh
Department of Chemistry,
DBS (PG) College,
Dehradun 248 001(UK), India
Vinod Kumar Gupta
Chemistry Department,
King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals,
Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia
Key words | health, India, metal ions, Uttarakhand, water quality
INTRODUCTION
Uttarakhand is a relatively new Himalayan state of India,
which has many natural water resources in the form of gla-
ciers and rivers. But the surface, subsurface and ground
waters are being continuously contaminated in the hilly
areas due to the dissolution of the metal ions, mixing of
rocks and leaching (Mittal et al. ; Jain et al. ; Kar
). Several reports have highlighted that some pharma-
ceutical and metal processing industries are discharging
their toxic effluents without prior treatment into the aqueous
bodies (Kumar et al. ). The quality of ground and surface
water is declining as a consequence of undesirable and higher
concentration of certain toxic metal ions like arsenic, lead,
cadmium and chromium (Goyer et al. ; Kar et al. ;
Sood et al. ). These toxic metal ions are relatively difficult
to detect in water because of their very low concentrations.
Detection is further complicated by the fact that symptoms
in people may not appear up to 5–15 years of drinking of con-
taminated water. Monitoring of water quality is necessary to
know the extent of metal ion pollution and source of metal
pollutants. Some advanced techniques, like multivariate stat-
istical technique and geostatistical mapping, have been used
successfully and reported for water quality analysis ( Jain
et al. , ; Gupta & Kumar ; Gupta et al. ,
a, b, , , a, b; Gupta & Agarwal ;
Chehata et al. ; Gupta & Ali ; Liu et al. ; Shyu
et al. ).
773 © IWA Publishing 2012 Water Science & Technology: Water Supply | 12.6 | 2012
doi: 10.2166/ws.2012.052