Evaluation of groundwater quality, Peddavagu in Central Telangana (PCT), South India: an insight of controlling factors of fluoride enrichment

Groundwater is one of the most valuable natural resources in Peddavagu in Central Telangana (PCT). Most of the PCT region population rely on groundwater for especially drinking purposes. For this reason a thirty-five groundwater samples were collected, analysed various physico-chemical parameters including F−. The range of fluoride concentration 0.6–3.6 mg/L in Zone-I and 1–3.5 mg/L in Zone-II. pH of groundwater is from 7.1 to 8.4 and 7.3 to 8.3 in Zone-I and Zone-II respectively. Fluoride shows a significant correlation with pH, HCO3 −, and Na+, which may leads to enhance the fluoride content in groundwater. Insignificant relationship between F− and NO3 − suggests no influence of anthropogenic sources for F− content in groundwater. The results of the relationship between Na++K+ versus total cations (TZ+), Ca2++Mg2+ versus HCO3 −+SO4 2− describes silicate weathering is prevails in the groundwater chemistry. The dominance of the water types Na+-HCO3 −> Ca2+-Mg2+-HCO3 −> Ca2+-Mg2+-SO4 2−Cl−>Na+-Cl−. Gibbs plot employed to differentiate the controlling mechanisms of hydrochemistry, which showed that rock water interaction is the governing process. Na+-HCO3 −, alkaline nature water and rock water interaction can leads to elevate fluoride content into groundwater in the study region. Thereby, most of the region people suffer with fluorosis problem, due to intake of higher fluoride content of drinking water. Therefore, the study region population may avoid such untreated water for drinking and adopt a suitable method to reduce the fluorosis problem in future. © 2018, Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature.