The quality of groundwater is, generally considered good in nature because it is usually free from odour, turbidity, colour and dissolved minerals ions. The concentration of mineral ions and their type can affect the usefulness of groundwater for different purposes in domestic, agriculture and industrial sectors. The effective management of groundwater can only be practiced when quality as well as quantity of groundwater is properly assessed.

In view of that, the present study is aimed to assess the groundwater quality of multiples aquifers for groundwater management in parts of Burhanpur district, Madhya Pradesh. In all 27 and 15 numbers of water samples were collected from observation wells representing the shallow aquifer and deeper aquifers respectively during pre monsoon period. The groundwater quality criteria for drinking/domestic utilization is decided on the basis of physical and chemical parameters standardized by different agencies. The physico-chemical parameters of groundwater have been compared with guideline of ICMR¹, BIS² and WHO³ which reveal all the physico-chemical constituents are within permissible limit for drinking purpose. In the ambit of USSL classification, Residual Sodium Carbonate, Wilcox Classification and Bureau of Indian Standards, the interpretation of analytical data show that the groundwater is suitable for irrigation purpose too. Therefore, qualitatively groundwater can be easily managed in the study area.