Abstract
This study was carried out to explore the groundwater quality in Manchar Lake's surroundings, (one of Asia's largest lakes in Sindh Province of Pakistan), to discover sites where potable groundwater is available. To achieve this objective, Vertical Electrical Sounding (VES) was employed at 21 sites in shallow depths by adopting Schlumberger electrode array alignment. The maximum distance chosen between current electrodes (A & B) was 300 m, and 20 m was between potential electrodes (M & N). ABEM terrameter SAS 4000 and IX1D resistivity software was used for data collection and interpretation, respectively. The results revealed that except for two sites (13 and 19), all other sites do not have potable groundwater at any depth. At site 13, one out of three layers lies under a high resistivity zone, while at site 19, two out of four layers lie under a high resistivity zone, which indicates the presence of potable water. To verify VES findings, water samples from 5 trial bores made by hand percussion method were collected and analyzed for Electrical Conductivity (EC) and Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), which revealed saline water from all trial bores. To sum up, potable groundwater is not available in the vicinity of Manchar Lake at shallow depths.
Highlights
The necessity for the quality and accessibility of water assets has consistently been the main concern of our societies in semiarid and arid regions
To validate Vertical Electrical Sounding (VES) findings, trial bores were constructed on five sites
The study area is divided into four resistivity zones depending on the field geology [9] as low (0-5 ohmm), medium (5-15 ohm-m), high (15-50 ohm-m), and very high (>50 ohm-m)
Summary
The necessity for the quality and accessibility of water assets has consistently been the main concern of our societies in semiarid and arid regions. The matter of obtaining enough supply of potable water is main issue nowadays due to consistently expanding of population, irrigation, industrialization and dumping of untreated effluents in the freshwater resources. Because of these circumstances, another alternative i.e. groundwater must be searched so that people can get potable water [1]. Because of an absence of other drinking water sources, individuals close to lake are constrained to use its contaminated water, which results in poor health impacts. According to World Health Organization (WHO-1998), the groundwater in the region of the lake is too salty to even consider for drinking. This study investigates consumable groundwater encompassing Manchar Lake utilizing an electrical resistivity survey
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