Fluoride Contamination in the Ground Water of Two Villages of Visakhapatnam Industrial Area

The present work of the authors is aimed at the assessment of water quality with special reference to fluoride contamination in the two selected villages Mulagada and Yeduruvanipalem. These two villages are situated in the industrial area of Visakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh, India. These two villages are surrounded by industries like BHPV, HPCL, Zinc smelter and Coromondel fertilizers. During a preliminary survey in the two villages it was found that the residents of the two villages were suffering from dental flourisis. In view of this, the authors carried out experiments on the determination of physico-chemical characterization. The results were compared with BIS standards. In the two villages, concentration of fluoride was found to be in the range 1.432-2.944 mg/L. Water quality index (WQI) for the two villages was found to be 101.1 for the village Mulagada and 87.5 for the village Yeduruvanipalem. A strong correlation between phosphate and fluoride in the water of the village Mulagada was observed. From the results obtained it was inferred that the water of the two villages is unfit for human consumption.