ABSTRACT
Introduction and Aims: safe and good quality drinking water is one of the most important human needs. The effect of ground water contamination is one of the most important concerns of public-health worldwide. The purpose of this was to investigate the chemical and physical quality of ground water resource in rural areas of Babol city
Material and Methods: sampling of this cross sectional- descriptive study carried out during 2011-2012. 14 physical and chemical parameters were measured in 78 random samples of 39 stations in Spring and Autumn. The results were analyzed by descriptive statistical method and were compared with the standards of ground water quality of Iran, WHO and Shuler's diagram
Results: the findings of this study indicated that the concentration of Nitrate, Nitrite, Sulfate, Chloride, Calcium, Sodium, EC and pH were within the standard range, but the level of turbidity, total hardness and Fe at 7.7, 5.13 and 20.5 percent of samples are higher than the standard limits and fluoride concentration that ranged from 0.02 to 1.13 ppm, where lower than the standard limits in 87.2 percent samples and 12.8 percent water samples were within optimum limit i.e. 0.5-1.5 ppm. According to Shuler's diagram, the parameters of water quality ranged between good and medium situations
Conclusion: based on the results, the mean concentration of most physico -chemical parameters in Babol' village's drinking water is based on 1053 standard limit in Iran, but the fluoride level is lower than the maximum contaminant levels in many villages. Therefore, by addition of fluoride to water supplies of these regions, deficiency complications would be prevented