This study reports the significance of freshwater springs primarily in meeting drinking water demands besides offering various ecosystem services. We analyzed a total of eighteen geochemical quality parameters using standard methods from various representative springs of Anantnag district, Kashmir Himalaya. Groundwater quality profiles were generated in a GIS environment for each parameter. Additionally, statistical methods were employed to understand the interdependence of water quality parameters. Highly variable dissolved oxygen (0.4–9.2 mg L⁻¹) and relatively higher values of nitrate ranging from 57 to 2668 µg L⁻¹ noticed during the study may be mostly related to contamination from agricultural waste. The findings of this study revealed that the springs are predominantly hard water type as the water samples found were calcium-rich and exhibited higher total phosphorus in few samples owing to limestone lithology in the catchment. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to the data generated chiefly three components (VF1, VF2, and VF3) having Eigen values of 2.0 or more (2.28–5.37) contributing for 31.63%, 17.99% and 13.44% of the total variance, respectively. The water quality index (WQI) of the samples for drinking purpose ranged from good to excellent. In light of our findings, it is argued that springs offer a potential, although partial, solution to the drinking water demands of a burgeoning population in Indian Himalayan region. However, equally important is to have a thorough investigation of springs to explore the impacts of other forms of pollution, including heavy metals, pesticides and antibiotic wastes, which can diminish much-needed ecosystem services.

本研究报告除了提供各种生态系统服务外，淡水泉水的重要性主要在于满足饮用水需求。我们使用标准方法分析了来自克什米尔喜马拉雅山 Anantnag 地区各种代表性泉水的 18 个地球化学质量参数。在 GIS 环境中为每个参数生成地下水质量剖面。此外，采用统计方法来了解水质参数的相互依赖性。高度可变的溶解氧（0.4–9.2 mg L ^-1）和相对较高的硝酸盐值，范围从 57 到 2668 µg L ^-1研究期间注意到的可能主要与农业废物的污染有关。这项研究的结果表明，这些泉水主要是硬水类型，因为所发现的水样富含钙，并且由于集水区的石灰岩岩性，在少数样本中总磷含量较高。对数据的主成分分析 (PCA) 主要生成三个成分（VF1、VF2 和 VF3），其特征值为 2.0 或更高（2.28-5.37），分别占总方差的 31.63%、17.99% 和 13.44%。饮用样品的水质指数（WQI）由良至优不等。根据我们的研究结果，有人认为泉水为印度喜马拉雅地区迅速增长的人口的饮用水需求提供了一种潜在的（尽管是部分的）解决方案。然而，