In the current era of rapid development, freshwater availability has emerged as a major challenge for both humans and animals. Pharmaceutical drugs, including antibiotics, NSAIDs, anticancer drugs, opioids, anti-inflammatory drugs, analgesics, and antidepressants, play a crucial role in treating and managing various diseases, and their global demand continues to increase. Therefore, pharmaceutical contaminants generated from various sources are increasing in the environment day by day. After drug use, pharmaceutical residues enter the human body as well as the environment and cause severe impacts on human and environmental health. Pharmaceutical residues increase AMR, endocrine disruption, reproductive problems, chronic organ stress, chronic systemic exposure, and toxicity. Various adsorption-based approaches can effectively remove pharmaceutical residues from the environment. This study reviews the occurrence, impacts, fate, and analysis of pharmaceutical contaminants in wastewater and suggests advanced treatment strategies for pharmaceutical residues. However, the novelty of the present review lies in its integrated approach to wastewater treatment.

Spring water is one the important source of fresh water in the Himalayan region which is used for drinking, irrigation, and industrial purposes. With the unprecedential rise in the urbanization and industrialization, has posed severe threats to spring water resources. The water quality of springs has severely deteriorated owing to the changes in land use patterns. In the present study, the physiochemical parameters of the spring water of intermountain Doon valley, present at the eastern Himalayan region were assessed in order to simultaneously understand the hydrogeochemistry of the region and the factors controlling the ion chemistry of water. In total nine water samples were collected from three different water springs during three different seasons and were different water quality parameters were analyzed viz. temperature, pH, electrical conductivity (EC), total dissolved solids (TDS), bicarbonate (HCO3⁻), sulphate (SO42⁻), chloride (Cl⁻), nitrate (NO3⁻), and fluoride (F⁻) total hardness (TH), calcium (Ca2⁺), magnesium (Mg2⁺), sodium (Na⁺) and potassium (K⁺). The heavy metal analysis (for Cu, Pb, Ni, Cr and Cd) for all the three seasons was found to be below the BIS threshold for drinking water quality. The total coliform and E. coli tests were conducted and was found to above the BIS standard's permissible limits. The Water Quality Index (WQI) was evaluated to check the suitability of water for drinking purposes and as per WQI index water and was found to be under the good category for drinking purposes. The spring water have fallen under the excellent to good category for irrigation purposes. The high ratio of Ca2+ + Mg2+ / Na+ + K+ and a low ratio of Na+ + K+ /TZ+ indicated the dominance of carbonate weathering in the studied area. The piper trilinear diagram indicated the Ca2+-Mg2+-HCO3 and Ca2+-Mg2+–HCO3– -SO42− were dominant hydro-chemical facies in the study area.

The industrial sector produces a significant amount of contaminated effluent with organic, inorganic and biological pollutants. Such pollutants in wastewater show numerous adverse effects on living beings and the environment. Moreover, the domestic and agricultural sectors are also responsible for contaminating fresh water due to the application of different chemicals in daily life and in agriculture. To ensure contamination-free water, the elimination of toxic contaminants, and to boost of industrial production processes, innovative and advanced water treatment technologies are used. Nanotechnology-based research emerges as a new field to provide feasible alternative methods to treat wastewater and is the biggest development of twenty-first century. Nanomaterials (NMs) and nanoscale molecules assure for prevention, detecting, tracking, and removal of contaminants from waste water. Different categories of nanomaterials like nano adsorbents, nanocatalysts, and nanomembranes are widely used nowadays. Carbon nanotubes, graphene oxide, titania, zinc, silver nanoparticles types are popularly being used in industrial sector, developed as a solution after innovative research and development-based processes.Several aspects including the efficiency and potential of nanomaterials are considering the future perspectives that have been discussed in the paper.

Safe sources of natural water are becoming contaminated due to human activities such as industrialization, colonization and municipal wastes as the major sources. Various pollutants contaminate both surface and underground water reservoirs, posing significant hazards to ecosystems and human health. This article presents an overview of diverse sources of contaminants and their detrimental impacts on the environment and its inhabitants. Of particular concern are dyes, recognized as among the most perilous water pollutants due to their easily identifiable presence even without sophisticated detection technologies. Among the array of available techniques, adsorption emerges as one of the most suitable approaches for the removal of dyes from contaminated water. Consequently, the exploration of various adsorbents for dye removal is of paramount importance in safeguarding water quality and ecological integrity. This paper presents an overview of sustainable ways for removing contaminants from wastewater using nanofiltration technology.

This work presents the suitability of groundwater qualityfor drinking and irrigation purposes of Haridwar, India. In this study, the suitability of groundwater qualityfor the purposeof drinking and irrigation was evaluated in the upper piedmont areaof Haridwar, India. In this regard, inverse distance-weighted interpolation,water quality index (WQI), principal component analysis (PCA), pipertrilinear diagram (PTD) analysis, and sodium absorption ratio (SAR)methods were used to assess the geospatial variation of groundwaterquality. The results showed that groundwater was partially affectedby rapid industrialization and urbanization practices. The groundwaterquality revealed the presence of different cations and anions in thefollowing order: Ca2+ > Na+ > Mg2+ > K+ and HCO3 (-) > NO3 (-) > SO4 (2-) >Cl- > SiO2 (-) >F-. WQI showed an excellent range (29.94-45.17)for sampling sites S1-S3 and S5-S8 and a good valuefor site S4 (99.2). In addition, PTD confirmed that the calcium andmagnesium bicarbonate type and mixed type for groundwater while PCArevealed that nitrate was dominant at site S4. In addition, the SARand Na contents were in excellent ranges, indicating their suitabilityfor irrigation purposes. The outcomes of this study indicated thatgeogenic and anthropogenic processes were the major reasons for thechange in groundwater quality of this region.

Safe drinking water is both a basic requirement for good health and a human right. In many places of the world, fresh water is already in short supply due to rising population, urbanisation and climate change and will become much more restrictive in the next century. Among the various other contaminants of drinking water, arsenic has proven to be one of the most toxic due to its hazardous nature and adverse effects on living being and is therefore considered as one of the biggest environmental threats. The path followed by As in our environment, ultimately reach and affect our ecology as a whole. This paper presents an overview of the highly toxic arsenic existence in drinking water around the globe with a detailed view of India and the various treatment techniques followed by remedial measures along with their advancement.

The inorganic pollutants especially toxic metals in excess quantity deteriorate the quality of water. In current climatic conditions, the quality of water has become a serious issue to our society due to increase in anthropogenic as well as natural activities. Moreover, the amount of chromium in water resources has increased not only in most of the places in India but also abroad. Consequently, the toxic nature of chromium including its occurrence, geochemistry, detection, and removal techniques from water and wastewater have been studied in the present paper. The paper also describes the chemical nature of various forms of chromium.

Water quality index (WQI) is valuable and unique rating to depict the overall water quality status in a single term that is helpful for the selection of appropriate treatment technique to meet the concerned issues. However, WQI depicts the composite influence of different water quality parameters and communicates water quality information to the public and legislative decision makers. In spite of absence of a globally accepted composite index of water quality, some countries have used and are using aggregated water quality data in the development of water quality indices. Attempts have been made to review the WQI criteria for the appropriateness of drinking water sources. Besides, the present article also highlights and draws attention towards the development of a new and globally accepted “Water Quality Index” in a simplified format, which may be used at large and could represent the reliable picture of water quality.

An analytical reversed phase HPLC (RP-HPLC) method has been developed and validated for the estimation of meropenem using RP-HPLC column [Inertsil C18 (4.6 mm x 250 mm) The validation parameters has been followed as per FDA and ICH specifications under the study. Water, acetonitrile and methanol have been used as mobile phases in specific composition. The pH of the mobile phase is adjusted with phosphoric acid. The isocratic flow rate of the mobile phase is 1.5 mL/min with UV detection of 300 nm. The method is validated for accuracy, linearity and precision with analytical samples. Moreover, the specificity of the method has determined by the comparison of the drug content in a marketed preparation of meropenem solution. The linearity has been found to be more than 0.999 as well as the precision and accuracy values are less than 2% and from 95% to 105%, respectively. The developed and validated method is found to be the most suitable for quality control programs and can be used as fast, economic, accurate and reproducible.

The fluoride is an essential nutrient for human beings which occur in the surface as well as in groundwater. In surface water, it reaches due to both geogenic and anthropogenic sources but in groundwater, it mainly comes from geogenic sources. Authorities like World Health Organization (WHO), United State Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), and Bureau of India Standard (BIS) have provided guidelines regarding the concentration of fluoride in drinking water. A higher fluoride concentration in drinking water results in fluorosis. Therefore, the understanding of fluoride occurrence, its detection and removal from drinkable water is the urgent requirement. The chemical behavior of fluoride, the reasons for fluoride concentration in groundwater, the fluoride detection methods, and some case studies on the occurrence of fluoride in fresh water bodies of Uttarakhand are summarized. The effectiveness of different techniques for removal of fluoride from water samples has been reviewed.

The ground water quality of Bhagwanpur Industrial Area of Haridwar district of Hilly state Uttarakhand in India has been studied. Under the study, the ground water samples were collected as per Bureau of Indian Standard from the selected locations of the area with the identification of their longitude and latitude. The GIS locations of the sampling sites have been shown in GIS map. Further, the samples were analyzed as per guidelines of BIS for 12 drinking water quality parameters like Colour, Temperature, pH, Total Hardness, Alkalinity, Chloride, TDS, Sulfate, Nitrate, Fluoride, Arsenic and Iron in analytical laboratory within the standard time limit of analysis. The results of the study have been explained in the paper. The Arsenic and Iron values in the ground water samples in some places have been found more than BIS standard limits. The probable reasons of the problem with the hydrogeology of Bhagwanpur area have also been described in the paper.

Pharmacetutical products and their wastes play a major role in the degradation of environment. These drugs have positive as well as negative consequences on different environmental components including biota in different ways. Many types of pharmaceutical substances have been detected with significant concentrations through various advanced instrumental techniques in surface water, subsurface water, ground water, domestic waste water, municipal waste water and industrial effluents. The central as well as state governments in India are providing supports by creating excise duty free zones to promote the pharmaceutical manufacturers for their production. As a result, pharmaceutical companies are producing different types of pharmaceutical products at large scale and also producing complex non-biodegradable toxic wastes by-products and releasing untreated or partially treated wastes in the environment in absence of strong regulations. These waste pollutants are contaminating all types of drinking water sources. The present paper focuses on water quality pollution by pharmaceutical pollutants, their occurrences, nature, metabolites and their fate in the environment.

Hydrochemical characters of drinking water sources of Dehradun district of Uttarakhand state in India were assessed by analysing the various water quality constituents. Analyzed water quality was interpreted by various statistical and other techniques like box and whisker plots, ANOVA analysis, piper diagram and water quality index (WQI). In the study, piper diagram illustrates that majority of samples fall in Ca-Mg-HCO3 hydrochemical facies, whereas some samples also show the dominant presence of Ca-Mg-Cl-SO4 ions. Graphical method of statistical analysis i.e., box and whisker plots indicates that significant seasonal variation was considered among the various seasons for most of the water quality parameters. Furthermore, ANOVA analysis also confirmed the results of the largest variation between the seasons as compared to between the sites. Considerable variation in water quality may be due to the geogenic and anthropogenic influence on the drinking water quality parameters. Moreover, WQI describes the suitability of all the sources for drinking purpose except two sources, which have unsuitable (Grade-E water) and poor (Grade-C water) water quality.

The water system plays an indispensable role on the planet earth for the survival of living species as well as for the sustainability of ecosystem. However, numerous factors like population growth, industrial activities, rapid urbanization, depletion of aquifers, climate change, several anthropogenic activities, geogenic activities etc. influence the water system. Therefore, the proper management of water resources has become the need of the time because its management and study will be much helpful to cater the safe water for the increasing population globally. In such direction, isotope technology has been emerged and established as an efficient scientific tool to combat the water related issues like ground water recharge studies, its quality management, surface water studies, salinization and contamination studies etc. The present paper highlights the importance of isotope technology for the management of water resources in changing climatic conditions.

Geo informatics has emerged as a powerful tool to monitor the natural resources of Earth. Remote sensing gives the detailed information in space and time not only from accessible areas but also from inaccessible areas whereas GIS helps in storing, interpreting and retrieving the spatial data. Different types of remotely sensed images either air-borne and space borne or active and passive microwave images have become significant in the monitoring of surface and ground water quality. Moreover, specific satellite sensors with various spatio-temporal and spectral resolutions are also much useful in water quality monitoring. Attempts have been made to explain the basic principles of RS and GIS as well as their role in hydrological studies including water quality monitoring of water resources in India.

Telanga State, India during 2012-2013 to assess its quality for drinking, domestic and irrigation. Out of many lakes in GHMC, some lakes, Shameerpet Lake, Banjara Lake, Lungerhouse Lake, Rangadhamuni Lake, Durgam Lake, Hussainsagar Lake, Pragathi Nagar Lake, Lakshminarayana Lake, and Amber Lake or Ameersaheb Lake in the jurisdiction of Hyderabad Metropoliton Development Authority (HMDA), sequenced in increasing order of TDS averages ranging 398 – 874 mg/L indicate fresh water. The water quality of lake in respect of COD average, it ranges from 50 to 200 mg/L but wide deviations indicate organic loads and very low DO support the same. The lake water is not suitable for domestic purposes but suitability of simple treatment for recycling for the purpose of domestic and industrial usage. The lakes with isolated/protected catchments and rock base such as Shameerpet Lake, Lungerhouse Lake, Pragathi Nagar Lake, Lakshminarayana Lake and Amber Lake are suitable for drinking water storage also if needed by diverting inlet drains. Shameerpet Lake physicochemical hydrology is good for domestic and cattle feed if properly protected its catchment from sewage and industrial effluents and presently it is under stress. Banjara Lake is suitable recreation activities. Lungerhouse Lake is suitable for remediation to domestic/industrial water supply and storage as some of its inlet drains connected to Sewage Treatment Plant (STP). Rangadhamuni Lake is small water body with completely collapsed catchment. Durgam Lake is provided with STP for some of inlet drains. Hussainsagar Lake is heart shaped situated at the heart of the city and confluence point of many drains flowing from major ports of city. The outlet of these lakes joins to the River Musi.

The water quality of six drinking surface water sources of Pithoragarh district of hilly state Uttarakhand has been accessed. The spatial and temporal variations of water quality parameters have been explained with the help of Box and Whisker plots. The selected surface water sources of Pithoragarh district were evaluated on pre-monsoon and post monsoon basis for two consecutive years of 2010 and 2011. The analyzed water quality data was interpreted through various statistical tools and softwares viz. Box and Whisker Plots, Piper and Trilinear Diagram, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Pearson Correlation Coefficient and Water Quality Index (WQI). The seasonal variation in water quality parameters in surface water might be ascribed mainly due to anthropogenic and hydro-geological activities. Further, Pearson Correlation Coefficient revealed positive and negative correlations, which indicated the interrelationships and interactions between certain water quality parameters. The WQI values pointed out that some of the water sources fall under poor, very poor and unsuitable categories.Key words: SpatialTemporal variationPithoragarhBox and Whisker plotsStatistical analysisANOVAPiper Trilinear diagramWQI

Effectiveness of chiral drugs is very well established against several lethal diseases. The demand of chiral drugs is increasing day by day. Besides this, the racemization of some chiral drugs is also found in biological as well as in environmental matrices. The analysis of chiral drugs has become a necessary Research and Development Unit task for any analytical scientist, pharmaceutical institute or pharma industry considering not only the specific role of these drugs for better and suitable treatment of any lethal disease but also for their occurrence and fate in environmental matrices. The present article highlights the importance, bioactivities, occurrence and fate of chiral drugs in environment.

The water quality of Pauri District of Uttarakhand, India has been assessed during pre- and post-monsoon seasons to express the suitability of water for drinking purposes. The values of turbidity and iron exceed the permissible limit prescribed by Indian Standards for drinking purpose. Some sites were also contaminated with large number of total and fecal coliform bacteria. Piper diagrams exhibit that all water samples fall in Ca-Mg-HCO3 hydrochemical facies and show the nature of carbonate hardness during both seasons. Based on the seasonal variation, the concentrations of most of the parameters considerably decreased during post-monsoon season and show the dilution effect of rain water in monsoon season. Water quality index describes the suitability of all sources for drinking purpose with ‘Good’ and ‘Excellent’ water quality during pre- and post-monsoon seasons, respectively.