Water is the one of the most precious resource in the earth. In that groundwater is the major resource of fresh water to all living organism. Most of the rural and urban population uses groundwater for domestic purposes. The people living in rural areas are more exposed since there is no centrally supplied treated water in these areas. Instead, groundwater accessed through dug wells, is their only water supply. Many people are not at all aware of the water borne diseases affecting their health due to high concentration of fluoride in drinking water which causes dental and skeletal fluorosis to humans, Based on (WHO, 2008) Standard Fluoride beyond desirable amounts (0.6 to 1.5 mg/l) in groundwater causes serious health hazards to humans and irreversible damage to plants. Ground water samples of open wells and bore wells collected from different locations in Dharmapuri Taluk in Dharmapuri District were analyzed for their physico-chemical characteristics. This study provide an overview of the fluoride content in drinking water and the extent of human exposure to different level of fluoride contamination in the blocks of Dharmapuri district, Tamilnadu. Most of the people in these area suffer from dental and skeletal flurosis such as mottling of teeth, osteosclerosis of pelvis and vertebral column, chronic joint pain. The ground water samples were studied during premonsoon and post-monsoon seasons from twelve different villages. The present study was undertaken to characterize the physico-chemical parameters such as temperature, pH, Total Alkalinity (TA), Electrical conductivity (EC), salinity, Calcium Hardness (CH), Magnesium Hardness (MH), Total Hardness (TH), Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Total Suspended Solids (TSS), Total Solids (TS) and fluoride. Each parameter was compared with the standard permissible limit of the parameter as prescribed by World Health Organization (WHO). The Langelier Saturation Index (LSI) shows that majority of samples have the border line corrosive nature with negative LSI values. The study reveals that in few villages, water has high hardness and fluoride content. Hence, ground water must be used for drinking after proper treatments viz., softening and defluoridation.
