LAUSR

Abstract Groundwater contributes about 30% of the world's total freshwater. In Madurai, the main source for drinking and other activities mostly depend on groundwater because the surface water is very minimum and the river water also available only during the monsoon season. The main aim of the work is to study the impact of the groundwater quality around the Madurai city by water quality index (WQI) and geospatial techniques. Twenty groundwater samples were collected from bore wells and analysed to study the groundwater quality in the study area. Water quality analyses of the same samples were carried out for pH, TH, Ca2+, Cl− and Mg2+. The analyses results of twenty observation wells were used in the preparation of the water quality parameter map. ArcGIS 9.3 software was used to create the water quality map by using the Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) interpolation technique. From this study, the whole area is classified as excellent, good, poor, very poor and water unsuitable for drinking. Thus, uninterrupted monitoring of groundwater is necessary to control the groundwater contamination.