Foreword
The groundwater is generally considered a safe source of water supply for the beneficial uses of drinking and irrigation. This water resource may be conta- minated by intensification and expansion of urban activities. The Central Board being a regulatory organisation for the Prevention and Control of Water Pollution had taken several initiatives regarding the assessment of pollutional and allied problems of surface water body but the problem of groundwater pollution had still remained unexplored. The issue was first raised following a Starred Question in Rajya Sabha dated March 26, 1980, where the quality of groundwater in the Union Territory of Delhi and in parts of Haryana and Ut tar Pradesh in terms of cadmium contaminatation was questioned and debated
The first monitoring was a joint venture of the Central Pollution Control Board and the Central Groundwater Board during the period January-April, 1981. Later, it was decided to re-check the water quality data particularly the cadmium suspected zone in Delhi including other physico-chemical parameters related to drinking and irrigation purposes. This treatise is the Central Board's first publication on monitoring and surveillance of groundwater quality in Delhi.