Deterioration of groundwater quality by the actions of percolation and leaching from Nala-Lai in Rawalpindi Region, Pakistan

Abstract

This paper presents a case study on the impact of Nala Lai wastewater in Pakistan on potential contamination of its nearby tube wells, bore water, dug wells and springs through percolation and leaching routes. Nineteen wastewater samples from Nala Lai stream and 68 groundwater samples from its associated and nearby areas were collected during (Season) and were analyzed for different water quality constituents. The parameters which were analyzed for determining the water quality include physiochemical parameters like Biological Oxygen Demand, Chemical Oxygen Demand, pH, temperature, turbidity, color, hardness, dissolved Oxygen, electric conductivity, total dissolved solids, Sulfates, Chlorides, Hardness and globally alarming heavy metals such as Cadmium, Cupper, Iron, Zinc, Manganese, Lead as well as bacterial parameter were recorded too. The results confirmed that all the 19 samples of surface water samples collected from Nala Lai exceeded the desirable limits (by NEQS) of both BOD and COD parameters