ABSTRACT Ground water is increasingly used for domestic, agricultural, industrial and other activities. Quality of water is the most important factor for any use; be it domestic or any other purposes. Indiscriminate use of ground water deteriorates the quality and quantity of water. The present work reports the physico-chemical characteristics of the ground waters collected from an industrialized urban agglomeration of Visakhapatnam city, Andhra Pradesh. The physicochemical parameters include pH, Turbidity, Conductivity, Total Dissolved Solids, Chlorides, Sulphates, Total Hardness, Calcium, Magnesium, Total Alkalinity, Nitrates and Fluorides. Though the data show that majority of the values are compatible with the maximum allowable standards recommended by BIS, still in depth studies are to be carried out to decide its suitability for safe drinking and domestic use. It is possible that the concentration of the dissolved impurities may increase further if the recommended norms for discharging industrial effluents are not adhered
