Visualizing the spatial water quality of Bentota, Sri Lanka in the presence of seawater intrusion

Abstract

Seawater flows towards the inlands along with the rivers and canals, through the process of infiltration and leaks in the ground water characterized by high concentrations of soluble salts. High salinity concentrations can make groundwater unsuitable for public consumption and surface water unsuitable for irrigation and agricultural activities. This study envisages the fluctuations of ground and surface water quality of Bentota area in the presence of seawater intrusion. The temporal and spatial variations of eleven water parameters were monitored by collecting the water samples during one year period. Spatial distributions were assessed by applying the Inverse distance weighted (IDW) interpolation method in Arc GIS 10.5 software. Water quality is assessed on the integration of all parameters in terms of an index based on the World Health Organization (WHO) standards. The significant linear relationship between the considered parameters of surface water (SW) and groundwater (GW) were identified applying correlation analysis using SPSS software. All parameters of surface water were above the permissible limits of WHO standards. Surface water quality index values with respect to 60% of canals show very poor quality (>1 250) of surface water indicating their unsuitability for irrigation activities. Those surface water bodies indicated very highly saline conditions during dry months. The spatial distribution of ground water quality index with respect to the highest parameter values of each sampling location indicates that 52.2% of total land extent of Bentota Divisional Secretariat Division (DSD) has good quality of ground water which is suitable for drinking. Its 47.2% of total land extent has poor quality of ground water for drinking purpose and less than 0.5% of the area consists of excellent or very poor quality of ground water in each. This study helps to manage coastal aquifers by understanding the extreme water quality conditions and coastal salinity.