Water Quality of Fox Sagar Lake, Hyderabad, Telangana State, India, Its Suitability for Irrigation Purpose

Abstract

Water quality indices provide a simple and understandable tool for managers on the quality and possible uses for irrigation water, however an individual quality factor alone is not enough to evaluate the irrigation water quality because it could be restrictive and sometimes it could give an unfavorable qualification. The aim of this paper is to assess water quality and its suitability for irrigation purpose of Fox Sagar Lake, Hyderabad, Telangana State. As a part of this, fourteen samples were collected from the lake during monsoon season of 2014 and analyzed for various physico-chemical parameters like pH, Electrical Conductivity (EC), Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Total Hardness (TH), Carbonates (CO3 2- ), Bicarbonates (HCO3 - ), Total Alkalinity (TA), Chloride (Cl- ), Sodium (Na+ ), Potassium (K+ ), Calcium (Ca2+) and Magnesium (Mg2+) were analyzed. To assess the suitability of lake water for irrigation, various indices like Hydrogen Ion Activity (pH), Salinity Hazard, Sodium Adsorption Ratio (SAR), Soluble Sodium Percentage (SSP), Residual Sodium Carbonate (RSC), Scott quality factor (alkali-metric coefficient or K), Permeability Index (PI) and Kelly's Index (KI) were calculated and found that lake waters falls under good quality