Seasonal behavior and spatial variations of water quality index and micro-biological changes in the springs of Indian Himalayan Region

Fresh water springs are authentic potable water resource for several societies and residents in the west Himalayan section of India. The current research analyses the hydro-chemical composition of spring aquifers in rural and urban area of Almora, Uttarakhand, India—a lower Himalayan Region, using a variety of drinking parameters and agricultural indices. During the Autumn and Winter seasons, ground-water samples were taken from the springs of this zone and tested for a total of 18 physicochemical and micro-biological water-quality factors. The Weighted Arithmetic-Water Quality Index (WA–WQI) method was used to evaluate the water quality. The WQI of the sampling locations ranges from 44.25 to 55.84 in the Autumn season and from 42.286 to 52.35 in the Winter season, indicating “good” to “moderately poor” quality. It was found that the physico-chemical characteristics were satisfying BIS/WHO standards and considered suitable for domestic purpose. However, 75