Assessing Seasonal Changes in Groundwater Quality in a South Indian Industrial Centre: A Geospatial Approach to Evaluate Drinking Water Safety and Health Risks

One of the largest industrial hubs in south India, Ranipet, has contaminated groundwater due to the discharge of waste from small-scale enterprises such as leather tanneries. This study collected groundwater samples throughout two distinct seasons in 2023 to assess the quality of 55 distinct open and tube wells for consumption and health risks. To determine if the groundwater samples were suitable for human consumption, we compared their physicochemical properties to worldwide drinking water standards (WHO). The majority of them were categorised as Ca-Cl and mixed Ca-Mg-Cl types by Piper’s trilinear diagram. The spatial distributions of various groundwater quality characteristics were displayed through the use of inverse distance weighted (IDW) spatial interpolation. Indicating that the majority of the samples obtained during the rainfall seasons (NE monsoon:82.8%; SW monsoon: 78.6%) were ‘rich’ for consumption were these criteria, which included the Water Quality Index (WQI). Nonetheless, 80–84.3% of the samples that were taken throughout the NE and SW monsoon rainfall seasons had “good” quality. By calculating the Hazard Quotient (HQ), we assessed the non-carcinogenic health concerns that adults and children might face from consuming the nitrate-rich groundwater. According to our findings, there was no evidence of a health risk for adults or children during either of the rainy seasons. During the rainy seasons, roughly 41–37% of the samples were harmful to children’s health, while 19–21% were potentially harmful to adults.