Electrical Resistivity Techniques for Groundwater Studies in North-Western Part of District Hisar, Haryana, India

Abstract

Abstract Haryana is one of the dominant agrarian states of India but salinity in the groundwater is one of the major concerns in the state. The salinity in groundwater is observed from top itself in the central part of Haryana consisting of Hisar, Jind, Rohtak, and Jhajjar districts. As a result, local inhabitants are facing severe problems with the nonavailability of fresh drinking water. In some places, shallow aquifers are having marginally saline water which is used by the local inhabitants in dry months. Groundwater even in shallow aquifers also becomes saline due to less rainfall and intrusion of saline water from lower layers. In some areas, the thickness of freshwater columns has been reduced significantly due to the excessive withdrawal of fresh water and intrusion from underlying saline groundwater aquifers. It is therefore pertinent to study fresh/saline groundwater interface to solve these problems on scientific basis. The geophysical methods especially electrical resistivity method has proved very useful for the estimation of fresh/ saline groundwater interface. The present paper deals with the findings of electrical resistivity survey conducted in Adampur and Agroha blocks of district Hisar, Haryana, India. Thirty-five Vertical Electrical Soundings (VES) were conducted in these areas for this purpose. The results indicate that the entire study area is occupied with marginally saline to highly saline groundwater. The study shows the presence of a thin layer of marginally saline groundwater almost uniformly distributed in the entire study area.