Assessing and monitoring the quality of groundwater is important for sustainable use of these resources. The application of Water Quality Index (WQI) is widely used to achieve this goal. There are several water quality indices (WQI) introduced by many researchers and environmental agencies, what are the criteria used to choose the best index to assess groundwater quality?
It can be a good idea to choose WQI base on your measured water quality parameters.
Water-quality indices are also made on the basis of a few parameters chosen for their ‘forcing’ or ‘driver power’. But it is here that subjectivity creeps in. Different experts and end-users may have different perceptions of the importance of a parameter vis a vis a given end-use. For example, a medical expert may perceive water carrying a faint odour but otherwise free from harmful constituents as good. In his/her opinion, the odour may be a parameter of very little significance. But to others, even the faintest odour in their drinking water may be totally unacceptable. They will advocate that odour must be included as a key parameter in any WQI dealing with drinking water. Even the water-quality standards, on which much of our decisions on fitness or otherwise of a water source depend, are not common to all countries. Further, as new research brings to light new facts on the beneficial or harmful effects of a constituent, or gives new information on the concentration beyond which a constituent becomes harmful or the concentration below which a constituent ceases to be helpful, the standards are continuously revised. The criteria of ‘acceptability’ also vary from region to region. In regions well-endowed with water resources e, for example, drinking water containing more than 500 mg/L of total dissolved solids limit for ideal drinking water) may be considered unfit for drinking because the state may find ample drinking water in an alternative source meeting with the BIS standard. On the other hand, people in arid or semi-arid regions, for example in some region, routinely drink water with TDS well above 500 mg/L. Therefore, parameter selection is as fraught with uncertainty and subjectivity as it is crucial to the usefulness of any index. Enormous care, attention, experience, and consensus-gathering skills are required to ensure the most representative parameters are included in a WQI.
Regards
For assessing ground water quality especially for irrigation purpose, estimation of pH, EC, residual sodium carbonates, carbonates, bicarbonates, Ca & Mg, Chlorides are required. Based on these parameters water quality can be judged whether suitable or unsuitable for irrigation or decide quantity of amendments require for better crop production.
Regards
National and International Agencies involved in water quality assessment and pollution control defines water quality criteria for different uses of water considering different indicator parameters, so there are numerous WQI specific to any region or area. For more details you can check this article:
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Ankur
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