Pollution Research Paper

HYDROCHEMISTRY AND WATER QUALITY ASSESSMENT OF GROUNDWATER OF BHIWANI DISTRICT, HARYANA, INDIA

SHALU, SUNITA PUNIA AND ANJU MALIK

Abstract

To assess the quality and suitability of groundwater for drinking and irrigation purpose 60 roundwater samples were collected from 16 villages of district Bhiwani Haryana, (India). Groundwater quality assessment was made by estimating pH, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids, hardness, and alkalinity besides major cations (Na+, K+, Ca2+ and Mg2+) and anions (Cl–, PO4 3-, F- and NO3 2-). Residual sodium carbonate and sodium absorption ratio indices indicate that majority of groundwater samples can be considered suitable for irrigation urposes. According to %Na nearly 71% and according to permeability index around 40% of roundwater samples are suitable for irrigation purpose. The groundwater has been contaminated y a large amount of salts as evident from the Cl– /HCO3 – and Mg2+/Ca2+ ratios. About 78% of roundwater samples have dominance of salt water. According to Gibbs’ ratio, majority of water amples fall in rock and evaporation dominance field and evaporation was found to be dominant process in ion concentration of samples. Water quality index (WQI) was calculated to find suitability of groundwater for drinking and irrigation purpose. All the water samples are in excellent and good category as per WQI rating and are absolutely fit for drinking and irrigation purposes except the four samples, i.e. Bh13, Bh25, Bh27 and Bh55 having WQI above 50 and are moderately polluted. The correlation coefficients were calculated and it was found that EC had significant positive correlation with Cl– and Cl– has significant correlations with total hardness and Mg2+.