Hydrochemical characteristics and quality assessment of groundwater in Amaravathi river basin of Karur district, Tamil Nadu, South India

Abstract

The hydrochemical study of groundwater in Karur district of the Amaravathi River basin has been carried out to assess the major ion chemistry and groundwater quality for domestic and drinking purposes. Twenty-four groundwater samples were collected, processed, and analyzed for various physico-chemical parameters such as pH; electrical conductivity; total dissolved solids; total hardness; cations such as calcium, magnesium, sodium, and potassium; anions such as bicarbonate, chloride, sulfate, fluoride, nitrate, and phosphate in the laboratory using the standard methods given by the American Public Health Association (Standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater, 21st edn. American Public Health Association, Washington DC, 2005). For quality assessment, the results were compared with water quality standards prescribed by the Bureau of Indian standards (Indian standards specification for drinking water 15:10500. Bureau of Indian Standards, New Delhi, 2003) Concerning water for irrigation purposes, parameters such as percent sodium (% Na), sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), residual sodium carbonate (RSC), chloro-alkaline indices (CAI I and CAI II), permeability index (PI), magnesium hazard (MH), Kelley's ratio (KR), USSL diagram, Gibbs' ratio (GR), and Wilcox diagram were calculated on the basis of chemical data to evaluate the current status of groundwater in the Amaravathi River basin. Parameters like MH (74 %), KR (75 %), RSC (95 %), and PI (69 %) in all three seasons indicate that the samples are suitable for irrigation and remaining are unsuitable. From USSL diagram, the result reveals that the samples fall in C3-S1 and C4-S1 indicate high to very high-salinity and lowsodium hazards. Wilcox diagram revealed out of 24 samples, sample no. 7, 8, and 11 in pre-monsoon, monsoon, and postmonsoon seasons fall under doubtful to unsuitable and 9 fall under unsuitable zone. The positive CAI values in 66 % samples in all three seasons indicate reverse ion exchange mechanism. The present study may be helpful for further studies concerning water quality issues in this area, where groundwater is a vital for drinking and other activities.

The hydrogeochemical signatures, quality indices and health risk assessment of water resources in Umunya district, southeast Nigeria

“…On the other hand, the natural factors that determine how far a water system is contaminated include amount and chemistry of contaminants, topography, mobility of contaminants, toxicity of contaminants, rainfall intensity, hydrogeological conditions, the residence time and the reactions that occur within the aquifer, etc. (Ahamed et al 2015; Barzegar et al 2016Barzegar et al , 2018aTziritis et al 2017;Kalaivanan et al 2017;Prasanna et al 2017;Ezenwaji and Ezenweani 2018;Egbueri 2018).…”

“…An understanding of the geochemical components in water, as well as the physical ones, is important in determining its origin and suitability for drinking and several other purposes (Saba and Umar 2016;Tiwari et al 2017;Mostafa et al 2017;Kalaivanan et al 2017). Water quality index (WQI) depicts the influence of natural and anthropogenic activities based on several key parameters on water chemistry (Batabyal and Chakraborty 2015;Ahamed et al 2015). On the other hand, statistical methods are very useful and efficient for assessing the quality of water and for communicating the information on overall quality of water (Tiwari et al 2017).…”

Multivariate statistical techniques for the evaluation of groundwater quality of Amaravathi River Basin: South India

“…The highest concentration of calcium, magnesium, chlorides, and bicarbonates in several cases may probably be due to their low rate of removal of soil (Ahamed et al 2015). The mean magnesium value of groundwater samples from left and right sides of the river basin in both the seasons is between 78 and 92 mg/L.…”

“…Tube wells account for about 9.48% of the total area irrigated in the district, while tank irrigation accounts only for 1.10%. Comparing the entire irrigation type, the canal irrigates only 29.45% area (Ahamed et al 2015).…”

“…2d). Deep groundwater occurs beneath phreatic conditions, and the most saturated thickness of the aquifer in rigid rock creation varied between 15 and 35 m depending upon the topographic circumstances (Ahamed et al 2015). Materials and methods…”