1 Introduction
Fresh water is an essential life support, but due to rapid industrialization and/or
urbanization resulting in the confinement of clean and drinkable water resources all
over the world and converted to a challenging global threat. From various printed
media and surveys reports, over one-sixth of the world’s population is suffering
from drinkable water crisis [1, 2].
As we all are aware about the sources of contamination, i.e. natural and
man-made or sometimes referred as geological and anthropogenic sources.
Geological sources dependents upon the geological strata i.e. route of flow of water
and from what kind of rocks it is passing by. The continuous flow of water through
rocks results in its weathering and constituent’s e.g., calcium, magnesium, arsenic,
fluoride, chlorine, nitrates, iron, soil and others get dissolved. Clean and drinkable
water is always enriched with minerals because they are essential for our proper
body functioning, but when the concentration levels rises above the bearing limits
then it will be considered to be polluted water and becomes a cause for water borne
diseases [3].
Sources including pesticides, insecticides used in agriculture, manufacturing
industrial discharge which contain concentrated amounts of heavy metals, chemicals, dyes, solvents, improper disposal of household waste containing synthetic
detergents, paints, gasoline and diesel fuels, pool chemicals, disinfectants,
medicines comes under anthropogenic contamination resulting in ground water
deterioration. According to UN report 2003 [4], about 2 billion tons of sewage per
day, are discharged into the biosphere’s water where sewage includes both industrial and agricultural waste [5].
2 Classification of Types of Contaminants
(i) Inorganic contaminants
(ii) Organic contaminants
(iii) Biological contaminants
(iv) Radioactive contamination
(i) Inorganic contaminants, is a group of contaminant, which incorporates inorganic species such as fluorine, Heavy metals, nitrides etc. They get added to the
water bodies due to geological and anthropogenic causes (as discussed above [6].
Heavy metals (HM), are defined as those who has density more than 5 g/cm
3 .
Table 1 is representing only significant to environmental perspective. Usually,
Arsenic amongst all is considered to be significantly hazardous [7]. HMs possesses
severe health issues e.g. reduced physical and mental among children, cancer, organ
impairment, nervous system mutilation, and in extreme cases, death. Hg (II) and Pb
(II) may cause autoimmunity disorder, kidney malfunctioning, rheumatoid arthritis
108
C. Sharma et al.
Fresh water is an essential life support, but due to rapid industrialization and/or
urbanization resulting in the confinement of clean and drinkable water resources all
over the world and converted to a challenging global threat. From various printed
media and surveys reports, over one-sixth of the world’s population is suffering
from drinkable water crisis [1, 2].
As we all are aware about the sources of contamination, i.e. natural and
man-made or sometimes referred as geological and anthropogenic sources.
Geological sources dependents upon the geological strata i.e. route of flow of water
and from what kind of rocks it is passing by. The continuous flow of water through
rocks results in its weathering and constituent’s e.g., calcium, magnesium, arsenic,
fluoride, chlorine, nitrates, iron, soil and others get dissolved. Clean and drinkable
water is always enriched with minerals because they are essential for our proper
body functioning, but when the concentration levels rises above the bearing limits
then it will be considered to be polluted water and becomes a cause for water borne
diseases [3].
Sources including pesticides, insecticides used in agriculture, manufacturing
industrial discharge which contain concentrated amounts of heavy metals, chemicals, dyes, solvents, improper disposal of household waste containing synthetic
detergents, paints, gasoline and diesel fuels, pool chemicals, disinfectants,
medicines comes under anthropogenic contamination resulting in ground water
deterioration. According to UN report 2003 [4], about 2 billion tons of sewage per
day, are discharged into the biosphere’s water where sewage includes both industrial and agricultural waste [5].
2 Classification of Types of Contaminants
(i) Inorganic contaminants
(ii) Organic contaminants
(iii) Biological contaminants
(iv) Radioactive contamination
(i) Inorganic contaminants, is a group of contaminant, which incorporates inorganic species such as fluorine, Heavy metals, nitrides etc. They get added to the
water bodies due to geological and anthropogenic causes (as discussed above [6].
Heavy metals (HM), are defined as those who has density more than 5 g/cm
3 .
Table 1 is representing only significant to environmental perspective. Usually,
Arsenic amongst all is considered to be significantly hazardous [7]. HMs possesses
severe health issues e.g. reduced physical and mental among children, cancer, organ
impairment, nervous system mutilation, and in extreme cases, death. Hg (II) and Pb
(II) may cause autoimmunity disorder, kidney malfunctioning, rheumatoid arthritis
108
C. Sharma et al.