Smart Groundwater Quality Assessment and Sustainable Management in Meerut City, Uttar Pradesh: A Review of Computational Techniques and Environmental Challenges

Abstract

Groundwater is the most important as well as most mismanaged resource on this earth. Its invisibility is the main hindrance in its management. The rapid pace of population growth, urbanization, industrialization, agricultural revolution, and climate change impacting the quality and quantity of groundwater. Meerut is a rapidly growing industrial and educational hub in the National Capital Region (NCR) of Delhi. Along with this, large quantity of wastewater generation and lack of treatment facility is another reason of decline in groundwater quality. The current review paper explores the current status of groundwater quality of Meerut district of Indian state Uttar Pradesh. Along with this, groundwater quality management practices going in the district are also explored. The results of the current review study revealed the declining groundwater level in the district with the highest decline reported as 91cm/year. Continuous decline in the groundwater quality was also found both in urban and rural area of the district. A large variation in the physicochemical parameters of groundwater quality found, such as total hardness ranged from 256 to 836 mg/l, TDS from 510.7 to 850.6 mg/l, and iron values from 6.478 to 12.09 mg/l. Besides this, large quantity of untreated wastewater [190 million litres per day (MLD)] is dumped in surface water bodies due to lack of infrastructure also pressurizing the groundwater resource. The district also lacks a central groundwater treatment facility increasing the possibility of health risks to the residing population. Similarly, the district also lacks groundwater recharge infrastructure except the rainwater harvesting applied by the Meerut Development Authority (MDA) in its own building and at certain other places by the academic institutions. Establishment of the groundwater treatment structures, groundwater recharge ponds, and increase in the wastewater treatment capacity is recommended to save and sustain the groundwater quality and quantity of the Meerut district and its outskirts.