This paper describes the informal groundwater market existing in the urbanperi-urban interface of Chennai. The private water tanker suppliers and packaged water industries utilize the land and water resources of the peri-urban villages. Thus, the groundwater sources in peri-urban areas play a significant role in meeting the growing urban demand. The villages that are experiencing the groundwater market are highly influenced by the urbanization and its related activities, due to their proximity to the city. The transfer of groundwater from the peri-urban villages not only deprives the peri-urban areas of their water rights but also leads to environmental damage. Agriculture declined in the water marketed villages in the range of 20-95 per cent during 1990-2007. The premonsoon and post-monsoon groundwater level fluctuation varied from 2-6 m to 0-5 m, respectively, during 1971-2007. The declining trend of the groundwater table and agriculture is highly significant in the water marketing villages. Moreover, the present groundwater quality is also in a susceptible state due to over extraction. Hence, strengthening the legal and institutional framework to ensure an equitable access to water for both urban and peri-urban areas is urgently required. This paper also describes the characteristics of the groundwater transfer, quantification of the marketed water, the role of the existing regulatory framework, and the institutional mechanisms. Many stakeholder's meeting and focus group discussions have been conducted in the villages under study for understanding the socio-economic implications of the water market. The study ultimately emphasized a sustainable groundwater extraction/market which will safeguard the interests of the peri-urban and urban communities.Readers should send their comments on this paper to BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.
The hydrochemical characterization of groundwater is important to bring out its nature and usefulness. The main objective of this paper was to discuss the major ion chemistry of groundwater in the Mambakkam mini watershed. Besides its semi-arid nature, rapid socioeconomic development encourages a greater demand for water, which leads to uncontrolled groundwater development. The groundwater of the study area is characterized by the dominance of alkaline earth (Ca(2+), Mg(2+)) and strong acids (Cl(-), SO(4)(-)) over alkalies (Na(+), K(+)) and weak acids (HCO(3)(-), CO(3)(-)) during both post-monsoon and pre-monsoon seasons of the year 2010, based on the hydrochemical facies. These have been probably derived from natural chemical weathering of rock minerals, ion exchange and anthropogenic activities of the fertilizer source. The classification based on the total hardness reveals that a majority of groundwater samples fall in the hard to very hard category during the pre-monsoon season. Based on the values of EC, SAR and RSC and the diagrams of USSL and Wilcox, most of the groundwater samples range from excellent to permissible for irrigation purposes, with a low alkalinity and high salinity hazard, except for a few samples in the study area.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.