Abstract:
In Sri Lanka, the dominant source of drinking water used to supply major urban and rural
communities is from wells, tanks, rivers, springs. Although there are no systematic and
comprehensive water quality assessment programs in the country, there are increasing indications
of water contamination problems in some parts of the country. Causes for water contamination are
natural or anthropogenic. Among natural contamination, water-rock interaction is critical but
remains hidden for most eyes. No sufficient study has been conducted on heavy metal
contamination of drinking water of the Eppawala apatite area in Sri Lanka. The main objective of
this paper is to determine the influence of some of the physicochemical parameters and heavy
metals and trace elements in drinking water and its distribution of different parts of the Eppawala.
Methodology
The groundwater was studied around the Eppawala Apatite Deposit (EPD) using tube well and
dug wells as the access. Sample size (60) was determined by distribution of the population around
the EPD. Samples were collected in wet season and dry season. The electrical conductivity was
measured in situ with Orion 3 Star EC meter. The collected water samples were analyzed for
seventeen (17) parameters including major cations, anions, heavy metals and trace elements.
Cations, heavy metals and trace elements concentration with the Varian SpectrAA AAS facility
, Cl and HCO3 were measured
using standard methods. The major cations such as Ca, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na, Zn, Cs, Sr, Li, Rb,
and major anions such as SO4 2Cl , F and HCO3 were analyzed using the ORIGIN 8 and Surfer software. Results and discussion
In terms of electrical conductivity, it ranged from 19.2ms/cm-1.02ms/cm in wet season and
, F and Cl are the highly abounded
elements in the selected area well water in wet season. That’s value are above the Sri Lankan
drinking water stranded
