Well-Water Quality and its Risk Analysis (WQRA) in the Flood Affected Areas of Kerala, India

Abstract

This research addresses the decline of well water-quality and its impact on human health after the 2019 massive flood havoc in Kerala. The research was carried out in the six villages of Kozhikode and Wayanad districts. Water samples from flood-affected but treated wells were collected to assess the water-quality through an eight key parameters such as turbidity (NTU), Total Dissolved Solids (mg/l), Total hardness as CaCO3

(mg/l), Chlorides as Cl - (mg/l), Nitrates-N (mg/l), Sulphate as SO4 2- (mg/l), Total Coliform (CFU/100ml), and E.coli (CFU/100ml) using the APHA, 2017 method. A significant increase in turbidity, total dissolved solids (TDS), Coliforms and E.coli content was noticed in the flood-affected but treated water samples. Additionally, a random survey has been conducted in sixty-one flood-affected houses with wells to understand the water-quality experienced right after the flood but before treatments and to analyse the treatment method adopted, potential risk factors and policy relevance. Significant variations in water quality determinants such as color, odor and oil sheen were noticed in the wells immediately after the flood. Unlike the flood-affected countries like Bangladesh and China, no significant disease outbreak has been identified in the study areas. This was achieved through proper awareness and good water consumption practices such as boiling and filtering. However, chlorination, a commonly adopted treatment method in the food affected area, is found to be inefficient and is suspected to cause chronic disease like cancer in the vulnerable populations. This research concludes that people in the flood-affected areas are at risk from consuming poor quality water mainly due to the financial crisis in adopting improved well-water treatments and ignorance from government authorities.