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Haryana is one of the leading states in India in the agricultural and industrial production. With the expansion of these sectors, a continuous increase in water demand is leading to water crises arising from overexploitation and quality deterioration of the available water. Contamination of aquifer resources is a significant concern, because majority of population depends on the groundwater for various agricultural, industrial, and domestic needs. This review article provides an overview of groundwater contamination, associated health risks with different contaminants with regions severely affected by poor water quality, and delves in identifying the sources, by observing and recognising the types of industries dominant in the state with types of effluents discharge. It further suggests the possible mitigation measures such as advanced remedial technologies and proper management practices from the consequent contamination sources. It has been observed during the perusal of various studies and data that the degree of contamination was considerably higher in districts with heavy agro-industrial activities. The groundwater resources in three highly industrialized districts were found to be gravely contaminated with toxic heavy metals. Alongwith heavy metals, the salinity, hardness, nitrate, and fluoride are also posing significant problems in the aquifer resources of Haryana state. The article also discusses various technologies for remediation of different pollutants from groundwater so it can be made potable after treatment. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study was designed to analyse the microbiological quality of groundwater in open-defaecation-free (ODF) villages of the Kurukshetra district in Haryana. Twenty-seven groundwater samples were collected from borewells of nine ODF villages located in three different blocks of the Kurukshetra district in three seasons and analysed for total and faecal coliform count. The presence of gram-negative, rod-shaped bacteria was observed in all the groundwater samples and the dominating genera found were Klebsiella sp. All strains were found to be resistant to clindamycin (100%) followed by gentamicin (66.6%), azithromycin and streptomycin (50%) and chloramphenicol (33.3 %) antibiotics. Minimum resistance of isolates was observed for antibiotic norfloxacin, ciprofloxacin (16.66%) and zero resistance were observed against tetracycline. The Multiple Antibiotic Resistance (MAR) index values indicated that in a majority of the samples (66.6%), the source of contamination was non-human, but nearly 33.3% were found to be contaminated by some human sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]