Abstract
Quality assessment of groundwater for drinking and irrigation was evaluated in parts of Nalgonda district of Telangana state, India. The overall groundwater quality and the suitability to drinking and irrigation were evaluated by hydrochemical analysis of 78 groundwater samples. The water quality parameters were compared with that of the limits set by World Health Organisation (WHO) and Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). Groundwater is found to be contaminated by fluoride and nitrate ions. The water quality indices (WQI) suggest that during pre-monsoon, 72.5% samples are suitable for drinking while 86.8% are suitable during post-monsoon. Indicators like sodium absorption ratio (SAR), electrical conductivity (EC), percent of sodium (Na %), residual sodium carbonate (RSC), permeability index (PI), magnesium ratio (MR), residual sodium bicarbonate (RSBC), salinity hazard (SH), potential salinity (PS), soluble sodium percentage (SSP), and magnesium ratio (MR) were estimated for assessing the irrigation suitability of the groundwater samples. Wilcox, United States Salinity Laboratory diagrams (USSL diagram) and Doneen’s chart infer that most of the samples are suitable for irrigation purpose and the suitability improves during post-monsoon. The geochemical evolution of the groundwater was also studied using Piper’s and Chadha’s diagrams. The major facies found in groundwater are Na–Mg–HCO3–Cl, Na–Mg–HCO3, Na–HCO3, Mg–Ca–HCO3, Mg–Na–HCO3 and Na–Cl. Rock-water interaction, ion exchange and evaporite dissolution were found to be the major geochemical processes governing the groundwater chemistry.
Highlights
Among the different sources of fresh water that can be used for drinking purpose, groundwater is the widely used resource due to quality and quantity considerations
Suitability of the groundwater for domestic and irrigation purposes was evaluated from the measured hydrochemical parameters in accordance with guideline values prescribed by World Health Organisation (WHO) (2011) and Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) (2012)
The overall water quality is assessed using water quality indices (WQI), which indicates that more number of samples have better quality during post-monsoon compared to premonsoon. F− and N O3− were found to be the main inorganic contaminants in groundwater, while high H CO3− concentration renders the water quality poor by increasing the total hardness
Summary
Among the different sources of fresh water that can be used for drinking purpose, groundwater is the widely used resource due to quality and quantity considerations. K+ concentration varies from 0.1 to 16.3 mg/L with an average of 4.2 mg/L for pre-monsoon samples and from 1.1 to 22.5 mg/L with an average of 3.3 mg/L during post-monsoon samples (Table 1, Fig. 3d).
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