assessment of groundwater quality in relation to ... · sharda shakha 1, brar,k, karanjot 2, kaur...

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES Volume 5, No 4, 2015

© Copyright by the authors - Licensee IPA- Under Creative Commons license 3.0

Research article ISSN 0976 – 4402

Received on November 2014 Published on January 2014 802

Assessment of groundwater quality in relation to agricultural purposes in

parts of Ludhiana District, Punjab, India Sharda Shakha1, Brar,K, Karanjot2, Kaur Gurmeet3, Madhuri, Rishi S4.

1- Department of Environment Studies, Panjab University. Chandigarh, 160014

2-Department of Geography, Panjab University. Chandigarh, 160014

3-Department of Geology, Panjab University. Chandigarh, 160014

4-Department of Environment Studies, Panjab University. Chandigarh, 160014

[email protected]

doi: 10.6088/ijes.2014050100075

ABSTRACT

Ludhiana district is the metropolitan state of Punjab, located on the National Highway 1 is the

most vibrant and business centre. The present investigation is to examine the suitability of

groundwater quality for drinking purpose and factor prevailing hydrochemistry by collecting

44 groundwater samples during pre and post monsoon. The physical and chemical analyses

result shows the parameters like EC is above the permissible limit in some places as per BIS.

At some locations the concentration of EC, TDS, Ca2+, Mg2+, F- and NO32- exceeded the

desirable limits of BIS which gives us cautions. Based on the Soltan’s Classification, the

groundwater sample are categorized normal chloride, normal sulfate and normal bicarbonate

water type. Base-exchange indices and meteoric genesis indices indicates majority of samples

belongs to Na+- HCO3- and shallow water percolating types.. According to Gibb’s ratio,

majority of the water samples fall in the evaporation dominance field for both season.

Key words: Soltan’s classification, base-exchange indices, Gibb’s ratio.

1. Introduction

Water is essential to all forms of life. It is a fundamental force in ecological life-support

systems on which sustainable, social and economic development depends. Groundwater is

about 20% of the world resource of fresh water and widely used by industries, irrigation and

for domestic purposes (Usha et al., 2011). The quality of groundwater depends upon overall

proportional amount of different chemical constituents present in groundwater (Ghosh. N,

2011). The development of industry and agriculture created a number of environmental

problems including air and water pollution with their serious effects on human health

(Appelo and Postma, 1993) and (Patrik.L, 2003). The Green Revolution technology in the

field of agriculture had put a great pressure on ecological balance, resulting in the fall of

ground water table, soil resources deterioration and environmental pollution from farm

chemicals. This imbalance results in global warming and ozone depletion through agricultural

practices and also poisoned the environment. Overexploitation of water resources resulted in

a speedy decline in groundwater table. Moreover, the decline in groundwater table over the

decades results in continuous reduced annual recharge, influencing the redox chemistry of the

aquifers and soil-water interfaces, causing mobilization of several chemical constituent in the

aquifer matrices. The composition of groundwater in a region can be changed through the

operation of the processes such as evaporation and transpiration, wet and dry depositions of

atmospheric salts, selective uptake by vegetation, oxidation/reduction, cation exchange,

dissociation of minerals (soil/rock–water interactions), precipitation of secondary minerals,

Assessment of groundwater quality in relation to agricultural purposes in parts of Ludhiana District, Punjab,

India

Sharda Shakha et al., International Journal of Environmental Sciences Volume 5 No.4, 2015

803

mixing of waters, leaching of fertilizers and manure, pollution of lake/sea, and biological

process (Appelo and Postma, 1993). The present communication is focused on the study of

temporal changes in the groundwater quality to assess the intensity of pollution activity and

to describe the hydrochemistry and suitability of groundwater for drinking purposes as well

as for the agricultural purposes.

2. Study area

The Ludhiana district is bounded between north latitude 30031’ and 30001’ and east

longitude 75028’ and 76020’. It is situated in central part of Punjab. The district s spread over

3790 sq kms. Administratively, the district has four sub-divisions and eleven developmental

blocks. The climate is tropical steppe, hot and semi-arid. The normal annual rainfall is

680mm. The map showing developmental blocks is shown in figure1.

Geomorphology and Soil type

The district area is occupied by Indo-Gangetic alluvium. Mostly the area is plain and major

drains are Sutlej and its tributaries and Budha nala. In the district soil characteristics are

influenced by the topography, vegetation and parent rock. The variations in soil profile

characteristics are much more pronounced because of the regional climatic differences. The

soil of this zone has developed under semi-arid condition. The soil is sandy loam to clayey

with normal reaction (pH from 7.8 to 8.5) (Wang et al., 2010).

3. Hydrogeology

In general the groundwater of the district is fresh except in and around Ludhiana city where

the ground water is polluted due to industrial effluents. The area is revealed by drilling data

carried out down to 408 m by Central Ground Water Board and State Government. The

lithological data of these boreholes indicate the presence of many sand beds forming the

principal aquifers separated by clay beds at various depths. The data indicates about 5

prominent sand horizons down to 400 m depth separated by thick clay horizons. The first

aquifer generally occurs between 10 and 30m. The second is between 50 and 120m. Third

between 150-175m. For the forth between 200-250m and the fifth between 300-400m. The

sand content in the aquifer in the district varies from 50 to 80%. Clay beds though thick at

places occur mostly as lens and pinches out laterally. The granular material becomes coarser

with depth. The aquifer at deeper levels acts as semi-confined to confined.

The depth to water level in the area is range between 9-26 m bgl. In the north eastern part

Machhiwara block area its ranges between 5-10 m bgl and 10- 20 m in north central part of

the district in Ludhiana city and Bhaini rain. In rest of the area of the district it ranges

between 20-30 meters. During the pre-monsoon period depth to water level varies between

9.24 to 25.48 m bgl and in post monsoon it ranges between 5.09-33.62 m bgl (Tiwana et al.,

2003).

Ground water development in the district has taken place through private and public agencies

for both irrigation and drinking purposes. The water supply to the district is mainly based on

ground water through tube wells. The water supply to the villagers is met out with the

installation of hand pumps as spot and convenient source of water. The canal irrigation

covers a very sound area of 90 sq. km out of 3060 sq. km area of total irrigated area. The

remaining area is irrigated by ground water. The shallow tube wells in the district ranges


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804

from 25-90 m deep (Wang et al., 2010). The locations of various ground water sampling

points in Ludhiana District is shown in figure 2.

Figure1: Map showing different developmental blocks of Ludhiana District, Punjab, India

Figure 2: Location map of various groundwater sampling points in Ludhiana District,

Punjab, India.


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805

3.1 Materials and methods

Groundwater samples were collected during May 2013 and October 2013 and were analyzed

in laboratory. The water sampling has been carried out following the standard procedures.

Good qualities, air tight plastic bottles with cover lock were used for sample collection and

safe transfer to the laboratory for analysis. Analysis were done for pH and EC and the major

ions (Na+, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+, SO42-, Cl-, HCO32-, CO32- and NO32-) using standard

method (APHA, 2002). Temperature, pH, EC were determined at the time of sampling in the

site. The determinations of immediate parameters were made within 2 days after sampling.

Ca2+, Mg2+, CO32- and HCO32- were analyzed by titration. Na+ and K+ were measured by

flame photometry and NO32- and SO42- by U.V Spectrophotometer. HCO32- and Ca2+were

analyzed within 24 hour of sampling.

4. Results and discussion

44 groundwater samples were collected from the study area for physico-chemical analysis

and their results have been presented in table 1. The brief details of quality parameters are as

under:

Table1: The table showing various groundwater parameters during pre and post monsoon.

S.No. Parameters

Maximum

Permissible

limit for

Drinking

Water

Desirable

Limit for

Drinking

Water

No. of

Ground

water

samples

analyzed

No. of

samples

above

Permissible

Limit

No. of

samples

above

Desirable

limit

1 EC 0-

2000µS/cm 750µS/cm 44 4 40

2 TDS 2000mg/l 500mg/l 44 Nil 44

3 pH No

Relaxation 6.5 -8.5 44 Nil Nil

4 Ca 200mg/l 75mg/l 44 Nil 21

5 Mg 100 mg/l 30 mg/l 44 Nil 12

6 Na

No Guidelines

44 Nil Nil

7 K 44 Nil Nil

8 Cl 1000mg/l 250mg/l 44 Nil Nil


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9 F 1.5 1 44 Nil 07

10 SO4 400 200 44 Nil Nil

11 NO3

No

relaxation 45mg/l 44 Nil 22

Figure: 3 Pie Chart showing parameters above BIS Desirable Limit

4.1 Classification of groundwater samples

The ionic dominance pattern is in the order of Ca2+ > Mg2+ > K+ > Na+ among cations and

NO3- > HCO3--> F- > PO43-- among anions in both pre monsoon and post monsoon. Based

on Cl-, SO32- and HCO3- concentration (Soltan, 1998), water samples are classified as normal

chloride (<15 meq/l), normal sulphate (<6 meq/l) and normal bicarbonate (2-7 meq/l). Based on

the Soltan’s classification, all the groundwater samples both pre and post monsoon are of

normal chloride type followed by normal sulfate and normal bicarbonate type which are given

in table 2.

4.2 Base–exchange indices (r1)

Matthess (1982) classified the properties of groundwater based on the predominant of chemical

constituent of Na+- SO42- and Na+- HCO3- type. The base-exchange indices were estimated

using the following equation:

r1 = (Na+ - Cl-) / SO42-

Where r1 is the Base-exchange index and Na+, Cl- and SO42- concentrations are expressed in

meq/l. If r1 < 1, the groundwater sources are of Na+- SO42- type, while r1 > 1 indicates the

sources are of Na+- HCO3- type. According to the Base-exchange indices (r1) all the

groundwater samples are classified as Na+- HCO3- type during pre and post monsoon.


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807

4.3 Meteoric genesis indices (r2)

The groundwater sources can also be classified based on meteoric genesis index into two types

and can be evaluated using following equation (Soltan, 1998):

r2= [(Na++ K+) - Cl-/ SO42-]

Where r2 is the Meteoric genesis index and the concentrations of Na+, K+, Cl- and SO42- are

expressed in meq/l. If r2 < 1 the groundwater source is of deep meteoric water percolation type

while r2 > 2 characterized by surface or shallow meteoric water percolation type. Based on r2

values, all the groundwater sources in the study area are of shallow meteoric water percolating

type .Moreover all Na+- HCO3- are surface or shallow meteoric genesis water in nature.

According to the meteoric genesis indices, the groundwater sources belong to shallow meteoric

water percolating type during pre-monsoon and post monsoon as shown in table 2(a) and (b).

4.4 Mechanism controlling groundwater chemistry

Gibbs (1970) proposed a diagram to understand the relationship of chemical component of

water from their respective aquifer dispositions. Ramesam and Barua (1973) have carried out

similar research work in the northwestern regions of India. Based on Gibbs diagram, there are

three major mechanisms that regulate the chemistry of the groundwater: 1) Evaporation

Dominance, 2) Precipitation Dominance and 3) Rock Dominance. Gibbs ratio is calculated by

following formulae given below.

Gibbs Ratio I Cation = [(Na+ + K+) / (Na+ + K+ + Ca2+)]

Gibbs Ratio II Anion = [Cl- / (Cl- + HCO3-)]

Where all the ion concentrations are expressed in meq/l. In the present study, Gibbs ratios of

the water samples are plotted against their respective total dissolved solids to assess the

functional sources of dissolved chemical constituent whether the mechanism of controlling

groundwater chemistry is due to rock dominance or evaporation dominance or precipitation

dominance. It is observed that the density of distribution of majority of samples are confined to

rock dominance category indicating that the chemical weathering of the rock forming minerals

are the main processes which contribute the ions in the water.

Table 2(a): Classification of groundwater according to different criteria during pre-monsoon

Sample

no.

Cl

meq/l Class

HCO

Meq/l Class SO Class

Base

Excahnge

(r1)

Meteriotic

genesis

(r2)

1 0.56 Normal 1.80 Normal 0.28 Normal Na+-

HCO3-

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


India


808


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


India


809


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric

Table 2(b): Classification of groundwater according to different Criteria during post

monsoon.

Sample

no.

Cl

meq/l Class

HCO

Meq/l Class SO Class

Base

Excahnge

(r1)

Meteriotic

genesis

(r2)


HCO3-

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


India


810


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


HCO3

Shallow

Meteoric


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811

5. Conclusion

The groundwater samples collected from the parts of Ludhiana District were appraised for their

chemical composition and suitability for drinking purpose. The results showed the parameters

like EC is above the permissible limit in some places as per (BIS, 1991). At some locations the

concentration of EC, TDS, Ca2+, Mg2+, F- and NO32- exceeded the desirable limits of BIS

which gives us caution for the water quality deterioration in near future and ultimately will be

not suitable for the human consumption.. Based on the Soltan’s Classification, the groundwater

sample are categorized normal chloride, normal sulfate and normal bicarbonate water type.

Base-exchange indices and meteoric genesis indices indicates majority of samples belongs to

Na+- HCO3- and shallow water percolating types.. According to Gibb’s ratio, the majority of

ground water is effectively controlled by rock dominance field for both the season. Hence, it

can be concluded that the overall quality of groundwater is affected by the industrial,

agricultural and domestic wastes besides other forms of local environment activities. There is

increasing awareness among the people of the Ludhiana District to maintain the good

groundwater quality and the present study may prove to be useful step in achieving the same

for the sustainable development of agriculture of the study area.

Figure 4: Gibb’s anion of ground water samples during pre-monsoon

Figure 5: Gibb’s anion of ground water samples during post monsoon.


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812

Figure 6: Gibb’s cation ground water samples during pre-monsoon.

Figure 7: Gibb’s cation ground water samples during post monsoon.

6. References

1. APHA (2002), Standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater (20th

ed). Washington D.C.: American Public and Health Association.

2. Appelo, C. A., and Postma, D., (1993), Geochemistry, groundwater and pollution,

Rotterdam: Balkema, BIS (1991), Bureau of Indian Standards IS: 10500, Manak

Bhavan, New Delhi, India.

3. Ghosh,N., Rishi., M. and Renulata., (2011), Hydrochemistry and Groundwater

Quality In Ghanaur Block Of District Patiala, Punjab, India, Asian Journal of

Microbiology, Biotechnology and Environmental science, 13(4), pp 1-8.

4. Gibbs, R. J., (1970), Mechanisms controlling world’s water chemistry, Science, 170,

pp 1088–1090.

5. Matthess, G., (1982), The Properties of groundwater, Wiley, New York. p 498.

6. Patrick, L. (2003). Toxic metals and antioxidants: part II. The role of antioxidants in

arsenic and cadmium toxicity, Alternative medicine review, 8, pp 106–128.

7. Ramesam, V., and Barua, S. K., (1973), Preliminary studies on the mechanisms of

controlling salinity in the North Western arid regions of India, Indian Geohydrology,

9, pp 10–18.


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8. Usha, O., Vasavi, A., Spoorthy and Swamy, P.M., (2011), The Physcio Chemical and

a Bacteriological Analysis of Groundwater in and around Tirupati, Pollution

Research, 30(3), pp 339-343.

9. Soltan, M.E., (1998), Characterization, classification and evaluation of some round

water samples in Upper Egypt, Chemosphere - Journal, 37, pp 735-745.

10. Tiwana, N.S., Jerath, N., Saxena, N.K., Nangia, P., and Parwana, H.K., (2005), State

of Environment, Punjab, 2005.Punjab State Council for Science and Technology,

Chandigarh.

11. Wang, M., Xu, Y., and Pan, S., (2010), Long-term heavy metal pollution and

mortality in a Chinese population: an ecologic study, Biological Trace Element

Research, pp 1–18.

assessment of groundwater quality in relation to ... · sharda shakha 1, brar,k, karanjot 2, kaur...

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