Evaluation of groundwater resources in a tiny Andrott Island, Union Territory of Lakshadweep, India

Abstract

Lakshadweep is a group of 36 coral islands scattered in the Arabian Sea off the western coast of India. On such small tiny islands, groundwater is the only source of fresh water for the islanders. Due to the growing population on these islands, demand for fresh water is also increasing and on the other side the peculiar hydrologic, geologic and geomorphic features restrict the availability of groundwater. Therefore, a proper understanding of the groundwater condition is important in order to meet this increasing demand and also to formulate future development and management strategies. Detailed hydrogeological, geophysical and hydrochemical studies have been carried out to identify potential fresh groundwater resources and quantify vulnerable parts of Andrott Island, Union Territory of Lakshadweep. Systematic collection and analysis of hydrological, geophysical and hydrochemical data reveal that fresh groundwater is only available between 2.5 to 5.0 m depths and provide an early sign of deterioration in groundwater quality in the peripheral parts of eastern and western coasts of this island. It suggests immediate measures for arresting the deterioration in groundwater quality as well as augmentation for restoration of aquifer in some parts of the island.

Integrated approach for demarcating subsurface pollution and saline water intrusion zones in SIPCOT area: a case study from Cuddalore in Southern India

“…Thus, geophysical methods are important for the investigation of the hydrogeology at depth, as well as for providing critical data on the successful identification of the saline water interface at a coastal area (Stewart 1982;Lee et al 2002;Singh et al 2009;Nguyen et al 2009). Out of them, self-potential (SP) method is one of the passive geophysical methods based on the natural occurrence of electrical fields on the Earth's surface.…”

Assessment of seawater impact using major hydrochemical ions: a case study from Sadras, Tamilnadu, India

“…Groundwater chemistry based on hydrochemical data is useful for providing preliminary information on water types, classification of water for various purposes as well as identification of different groundwater aquifers and study of different chemical processes (Karanath 1987;Saxena et al 2003;Jalali 2007;Sarwade et al 2007). A number of workers have worked for appraisal of groundwater resources in coastal aquifers in various parts of India (Karanath 1987;Sukhija et al 1996;Radharkishna and Chowdary 1998;Rajmohan et al 2000;Bobba 2002;Ramesh 2003;Saxena et al 2004;Singh et al 2004aSingh et al , 2009Rao et al 2005;Senthilkumar et al 2008;Mondal et al 2008Mondal et al , 2010bPujari and Soni 2009).…”