Groundwater quality is critical to public health but increasingly threatened by both natural and human-induced contamination in Bangladesh. This study evaluated the physicochemical properties, contamination sources, and potential health risks of groundwater in Kaliganj Municipality, Jhenaidah District, southwestern Bangladesh. Thirty samples were analysed for key parameters including pH, total dissolved solids, calcium, bicarbonate, arsenic, iron, and manganese. Average concentrations of arsenic (0.03 ± 0.03 mg/L), iron (0.72 ± 1.16 mg/L), and manganese (0.21 ± 0.24 mg/L) exceeded drinking-water guideline limits in 16.7%, 26.7%, and 56.7% of samples, respectively. The water quality index classified 40% of samples as unsuitable to poor for drinking purposes. Health risk assessment indicated that approximately 54% of groundwater sources pose high non-carcinogenic risks for adults and 50% for children, mainly through arsenic exposure. Multivariate statistical analysis revealed that contamination originates primarily from geogenic processes such as mineral dissolution and reductive dissolution of iron–manganese oxides, with additional influence from agricultural runoff and industrial effluents. The results provide baseline information to support groundwater safety management by local authorities, the Department of Public Health Engineering, the Bangladesh Water Development Board, the Local Government Engineering Department, and the Asia Arsenic Network for guiding safe water planning and mitigation measures.
Siddique et al. (Sun,) studied this question.