Groundwater Quality Analysis Using Water Quality Index In Chikkaballapur District, Karnataka.

Abstract

Groundwater is an important natural resource and play an important role in recent years in the irrigation activities in Chikkaballapur district of Karnataka state.. Due to continuous drought situations bore well water is the main source for their irrigation needs. Groundwater is the most dependant source of water for the day to day requirement for various needs in the absence of alternate sources of water supply. Chikkaballapur district lies between North latitude 13˚ 13’ 04” to 13˚ 58’29” and East Longitude 77˚ 21’ 52” to 78˚ 12’ 31”. It is falling in Survey of India Toposheet No. 57 G/12. There are no perennial rivers in Chikkaballapur district .The district is drained by three river basins namely Palar, Ponnaiyar, and Pennar. All these rivers and their tributaries are small and carry water only during rainy season. Geologically the area is underlined by massive granites and gneisses intruded by magmatic intrusions of different dimensions. Water quality is directly related to the physical, chemical, biological and radiological property of water. These properties of water are affected because of the pollution of water due to various human activities. There are various parameters which can be assessed for measurement of quality of water but when consideration of all parameters may be generates complexity towards quality. So, development of Water Quality Index (WQI) is the quite popular method in water quality assessment. This will explain the   whole story of water in single scoring number and it is calculated using different methods. It is helpful to decide appropriate treatment technique to meet the concern issue. In this paper, WQI and its development methods are discussed. The quality of irrigation water depends primarily on the presence of dissolved salts and their concentrations. Sodium Absorption Ratio (SAR), Kelly’s Ratio (KR), Magnesium Absorption Ratio (MAR), Sodium to Calcium Absorption Ratio (SCAR) and Soluble Sodium percentage. Moreover, the poor-quality water causes impairment in crop growth as high salt concentration in irrigation water results in osmotic stress and ion toxicity in plants. This may be due to over exploitation the groundwater. Fluoride and nitrates have already crossed the permissible limits in most of the groundwater samples analyzed in the study area.