Under the loom of extreme climatic perturbations, human expansion and rising demand, world’s freshwater reserves are expected to suffer severe setbacks in the coming years. A major task for the international authorities in this regard is to develop a reliable inventory of existing potable water sources and identify the challenges therein. The main objective of this study was to present a spatial summary of ‘safe’ water sources in India using the most ‘authentic’, cross-sectional, open-sourced census database for 2011 ranging from household to state level.

A total number of 46 samples were collected from the open wells during post monsoon season in and around the Tuticorin city to evaluate the water quality and scrutinize the hydro chemical characteristics. Quality assessment is done by estimating the pH, electrical conductivity, temperature, major cation (Na+, K+, Mg2+, Ca+ ) and major anions (Cl-, HCO3-, PO4-). The irrigation quality parameters like sodium absorption ratio, %Na, residual sodium carbonate, residual sodium bicarbonate, chlorinity index, permeability index and magnesium hazard were appraised.

Hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] is a known pulmonary carcinogen. Recent detection of Cr(VI) in drinking water wells in North Carolina has raised public concern about contamination of drinking water wells by nearby coal ash ponds. Here we report, for the first time, the prevalence of Cr and Cr(VI) in drinking water wells from the Piedmont region of central North Carolina, combined with a geochemical analysis to determine the source of the elevated Cr(VI) levels.

Inorganic soil arsenic (As) in three soils was fractionated adopting phosphorus fractionation schemes. Among these fractions, iron-bound arsenic (Fe-As) was found highest, followed by aluminium-bound arsenic (Al-As). The freely exchangeable arsenic was relatively small compared to the arsenic held by internal surfaces of soil aggregates. The arsenic fractions exhibited positive correlation with phosphorus content presumably due to the fact that high P in soil releases more arsenic from soil adsorption sites owing to the competition for the same adsorption sites.