Investigating underground water salinity in east coastline of Tamil Nadu, India and improving its quality through solar assisted desalination

Abstract

The gradual infiltration of sea water into the ground near coastal regions causes severe damage to the quality of underground water. It will end up with a high level of salinity in the bore wells near the coastal areas. In this study, an assessment has been conducted systematically to analyse the water quality parameters and level of salinity in underground water samples, which were collected from the sub-urban area near the coastal line of Chennai, a metropolitan city in Tamil Nadu. The various factors pertaining to the water quality were examined with the water samples collected from eight arbitrary locations, and the results show that the intrusion of seawater is predominant for the salinity of the underground water in this zone. In order to provide a low-cost solution for producing potable water, an effective solar assisted desalination method using a solar desalting still (SDS) has been proposed. The improvement in the water quality parameters of the samples after the solar distillation process was critically investigated. The outcomes evidenced that the treatment of salty underground water with the aid of SDS has been effectively enhanced its quality for the domestic uses.