Determination of Drinking Quality of Water near the Coastal Areas of Jaffna Lagoon

Ground water pollution by human activities is one of the areas of major concern to the world. Water quality is one of the principle health index of a country. Industrialization, urbanization and modern agriculture practices have direct impact on water resources. These factors influence both fresh and salt water bodies quantitatively and qualitatively. This paper presents ground water quality of an urbanized area in the marine coast of Jaffna. Twelve different locations were randomly selected for this comparative study and the following parameters were studied, temperature, pH, turbidity, total hardness, total alkalinity, sulphate, chloride, fluoride, conductivity, total dissolved solids, coliform bacterial count. A slight fluctuation in the physico-chemical parameters of the water samples analysed confirms the pollution of the ground water and it is not up to the quality of drinking