Being the largest freshwater sources, groundwaters not only provide adequate supply for domestic, agricultural, and industrial activities but also ensure sustainability of the ecohydrological phenomenon. Their continuous depletion (due to overexploitation) and deterioration (due to pollution) are causing grave environmental and health consequences. Particularly, over the past few decades, release of unchecked industrial wastewaters into streams of heavy metal ions into groundwater resources has been found to be catastrophic and the devastating impacts of the use of heavy metal‐contaminated groundwater can be seen across the globe despite strong and rigid legislations. Therefore, the major challenge now is to maintain the sustainability of groundwater resources in conjunction with socioeconomic‐industrial development. The development of efficient methodologies that can be used to monitor groundwater sources in real time from the perspective of heavy metal pollution are highly desirable. Further, technologically feasible and commercial viable treatment processes need to be designed and developed for the pretreatment of industrial waste before its discharge to groundwater sources and other water bodies. Moreover, attention needs to be paid to the sustainability of new‐generation advanced treatment technologies like membrane filtration and adsorption so that treatment of contaminated groundwater can be achieved on a bulk scale at the point of source prior to its consumption. These technologies not only offer purified water from contaminated water but also provide an opportunity for recovery of heavy metals as resource materials from polluted waters. Therefore, in a nutshell, a long‐term planning solution is required to optimize groundwater resources by considering the future projections of industrial expansions, irrigation demands, and drinking water supplies.
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30 EPA,
