Assessment of groundwater quality and health risk in drinking water basin using GIS

Abstract

Eğirdir Lake basin was selected as the study area because the lake is the second largest freshwater lake in Turkey and groundwater in the basin is used as drinking water. In the present study, 29 groundwater samples were collected and analyzed for physico-chemical parameters to determine the hydrochemical characteristics, groundwater quality, and human health risk in the study area. The dominant ions are Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, HCO₃²⁻, and SO₄². According to Gibbs plot, the predominant samples fall in the rock–water interaction field. A groundwater quality index (WQI) reveals that the majority of the samples falls under good to excellent category of water, suggesting that the groundwater is suitable for drinking and other domestic uses. The Ca-Mg-HCO₃, Ca-HCO₃, Ca-SO₄-HCO₃, and Ca-Mg-HCO₃-SO₄ water types are the dominant water types depending on the water–rock interaction in the investigation area. Risk of metals to human health was then evaluated using hazard quotients (HQ) by ingestion and dermal pathways for adults and children. It was indicated that As with HQ ingestion >1 was the most important pollutant leading to non-carcinogenic concerns. It can be concluded that the highest contributors to chronic risks were As and Cr for both adults and children.