Determination of the water Quality Index in groundwater samples from Rafaela City and surrounding areas (Santa Fe Province)

Abstract

Water is an essential resource, and in the last years, there has been a decrease of the global water sources and also of its quality due to natural as well as anthropogenic factors. Some communities don’t have access to safe drinking water and depend mostly on underground waters. The water quality index is a value that gives information about the quality of water, and because of that, the purpose of this work is to calculate that index in the underground water in Rafaela and other near cities. That index will allow us to classify the water based on its aptitude for human consumption. For that purpose, many samples were taken in different parts of the study zone and those samples were categorized physicochemically. The water quality index showed that underground waters quality is not good for human consumption in any of those places, and that fact shows the decrease of their quality.