Zonunthari ¹, Emacaree S Nongtri¹, Roger Bruce Syngkli¹, Lalnuntluanga ¹, Prabhat Kumar Rai^1,

Rapid rise in population, modern intensive agriculture, and industrial development significantly stressed the water resources and deteriorated the groundwater quality. Therefore, the present study aimed to assess the groundwater quality in a hilly landscape of Aizawl city, Mizoram, Northeast India. Groundwater extracted from multiple sources is the primary water source to meet the basic needs of local residents. Thus, there exist an urgent need to monitor the groundwater quality to safeguard public health. To this end, six physico-chemical characteristics demonstrated varying ranges at different sites/seasons such as temperature (18.5°C-26°C), pH (5.35-7.9), turbidity (0.1NTU-80.9NTU), Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) 16 mg/L -268 mg/L)), Chloride (3.16 mg/L -86.02 mg/L), Dissolved Oxygen (DO (1.75 mg/L - 6.46 mg/L)). Further, heavy metals like Manganese (Mn (0- 0.6892 mg/L)) slightly exceeded the permissible concentrations while Copper (Cu (0 -0.0189 mg/L)) was noted to be below the regulatory limits. The findings revealed that all the water quality parameters were below the permissible limit set, except turbidity and Mn. Groundwater of Aizawl was therefore found to be suitable for domestic use other than drinking. Henceforth, proper management of the groundwater is required through frequent monitoring and application of green technologies such as phytoremediation to improve the water quality for sustainable use.

Water quality, groundwater, physico-chemical properties, heavy metals, phytoremediation