Abstract
Concentration of radon in ground and drinking water samples are collected from 36 locations around Kabini River basin, Karnataka State, India was measured using Emanometry Technique and it varied from 1.1 to 38.9 Bq.L-1 with geometrical mean of 8.5 Bq.L-1. The higher radon values are found at western side of the river, this is due to the local geology of the area and the upstream water consists of higher activity concentration of radon than that of downstream of the river. The total annual effective dose received by inhalation and ingestion of radon varied from 7.58 to 106.26 μSv.y-1 with geometrical mean of 25.37 μSv.y-1. The annual effective doses were within the safe limit of 0.1 μSv.y-1 as prescribed by World Health Organization (WHO). Out of the total population in the study area, nearly 70% use underground water, 20% use river water and others use surface water (river and lakes) for drinking.