Bayesian spatial analysis and prediction of groundwater contamination in Jhelum city (Pakistan)

Access to clean drinking water, which is essential for healthy human life, is becoming hard with every day, especially in densely populated cities and towns. Ground waters contain many minerals that need to be constantly monitored and in case of any discrepancy with the minerals’ levels immediate remedial measures become necessary to keep it safe to drink. We conduct model-based (aka likelihood based) maximum likelihood estimation and Bayesian kriging predictions for six water quality parameters, namely pH, turbidity, total dissolved solids, calcium, hardness and chloride in groundwater in Jhelum city. Our results show that the concentrations of all the six parameters are, in general, higher in study region, especially four of them have concentrations well above the upper bound of standard limits, of WHO and EPA criteria of USA and Pakistan, and need the immediate attention of concerned authorities for remedial measures.