Affiliations: Department of Civil Engineering, University College of
Engineering, Tiruchirappalli Anna University, Tiruchirappalli – 620024, India | The Institute of Engineers (India), 8 Gokhale Road,
Kolkata – 700020
Abstract: Water as a resource, fundamental amenity and universal solvent is
shared by inhabitants. The tanning industry is one of the oldest industries in
India. The tanning industry is an especially large contributor of pollutants to
water resources. Concentration of pollutants more than their permissible limits
in potable water leads to health problems, such as water-borne diseases like
fluorosis, typhoid, jaundice, cholera, premature baby and other problems,
especially in infants. The water samples were taken from the villages Sembattu
and Gundur and there are twelve numbers of tanneries working in this area.
Various physicochemical parameters such as pH, electrical conductivity,
chloride (Cl), total hardness CaCO3 (TH), nitrate (NO3), sulphate (SO4) and
alkalinity have been analysed. In the analyses, chloride and hardness content
in groundwater were on higher side compared with Bureau of Indian Standard
(BIS) and World Health Organization (WHO) standards but the level of sulphate
was within permissible limit. It is evident that groundwater quality is
gradually getting deteriorated and it may deteriorate further with time. The
results envisaged that the quality of groundwater around tanneries areas is
poor, and is not suitable for drinking purpose and can only be used after
proper treatment.
