Assessment of Groundwater Quality for Drinking and Irrigation Use in Gurugram Block of Gurugram District, Haryana, India

Abstract

Groundwater is a vital and reliable source of water in all climates worldwide. In this work, a total of 26 groundwater samples were collected from the Gurugram Block of Gurugram District (a cosmopolitan city situtated proximately to capital of India) analyzed for electrical conductivity, pH, hardness, dissolved solids (TDS), Na+, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+, Cl- and alkalinity as HCO3 −, CO3 2−. Based on the analytical results, the sodium adsorption ratio, sodium percentage, residual sodium carbonate, chloro-alkaline index, base exchange index, meteoric genesis index, permeability index), magnesium hazard and Kelly index were calculated. The most abundant cations were Na+ and Ca2+, which accounted for 43% and 36% of total cations, respectively. Based on median value, the cations are in the following order: Na+ > Ca2+ > Mg2+ > K+. There are no dangers in any of the 22 villages (85%). They have fluoride levels which are less than the maximum desirable limit of 1.0 mg/L established by IS: 10500, 2012. There were 15 villages (58%) with nitrate concentrations less than the limit (45 mg/L) and 11 villages (42%) with nitrate concentrations greater than the limit. The conductivity of groundwater samples was dominated by the ions EC-TDS (r = 1.0), EC-Na (r = 0.93) and EC-HCO3 (r = 0.84). The natural origin of the ions was revealed by the Na-Cl correlation coefficient (r = 0.82). TDS and Na correlated positively (r = 0.93). Wilcox classified that 4% of the ground water samples as excellent to good, 19% as good to permissible, more than 19% as doubtful to unsuitable and 58% as unsuitable for irrigation. According to the US salinity diagram,% of the samples fall into the C3–S1 water class, indicating water with a high salinity hazard and a low sodium hazard.