NEW DELHI : In general, groundwater quality across most parts of India is considered “good to excellent” with 100% water samples in certain states and UTs, such as Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Meghalaya and J&K, meeting BIS standards, whereas Rajasthan, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh face “widespread contamination” and certain others face “localised contamination challenges”, said Central Ground Water Board in a report released last week.The annual groundwater quality report 2025 — analysing 14,978 groundwater samples collected in 2024 — noted that about 71.7% of samples comply with BIS permissible limits for drinking water, whereas the remaining 28.3% samples exceed permissible limit for one or more parameters, indicating localised quality concerns. “Overall, most samples meet the prescribed standards, though some areas reflect the need for focused monitoring and quality improvement measures,” it said.The report said arsenic contamination is a major concern in the Ganga and Brahmaputra river basin while uranium contamination, although less widespread, has been sporadically detected in parts of Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The highest uranium contamination was observed in Punjab, where over half of the samples (53% pre-monsoon and 62% post-monsoon) exceeded the limit, followed by Haryana (15%–23%), Delhi (13%–15%), Karnataka (6%–8%) and UP (5%–6%).Discharge of untreated industrial waste, excessive use of fertilisers and pesticides in farming, improper waste disposal and sewage leakage in urban areas and over-extraction of groundwater are listed in the report as key factors contributing to groundwater quality decline.“Significant concerns have emerged from the analysis, particularly the high concentrations of nitrate, fluoride and electrical conductivity (EC) in groundwater. Almost 20.7% of samples exceeded the permissible limit for nitrate while 8.05% of samples had fluoride levels above limit,” said the report.EC contamination, an indicator of total dissolved solids/ salinity, was found in 7.23% of samples. Salinity concerns are particularly acute in arid and semi-arid regions of northwest India, with Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana & Gujarat showing a higher proportion of non-compliant samples. The Analysis for pre-monsoon 2024 showed iron (11.71%) and manganese (10.94%) are most common parameters exceeding BIS permissible limits.
