Abstract

Assessment of Ground Water Quality in Sangamner Area for Sustainable Agricultural Water use Planning

Author(s): K. K. Deshmukh

Analysis of groundwater samples of Sangamner area, Ahmednagar District, Maharashtra was carried out to evaluate the chemistry of ground water. The physico-chemical analysis of 53 open wells waters was carried out by standard methods. The result showed that higher values of chemical constituents of groundwater are found with those samples which are close to river channel and in the downstream part of Pravara river. Calcium and magnesium are dominant cations followed by sodium. Chloride is found to be predominant anion followed by bicarbonate, sulphate and nitrate. The chemical characteristics of ground water have been found to be dominated by Ca + Mg > Na + K-HCO3 + CO3 hydrochemical types followed by Na + K-HCO3 + CO3 and Na + K-SO4 + Cl + NO3 indicating dominance of cation and anion exchange. The Richard's classification as well as SAR, RSC, KR and Wilcox's classification showed the waters in the upper part of Pravara river are suitable for sustainable agricultural waters use planning while water from lower part needs treatment before use. Educating the farmers to adopt better farm practices have been suggested to reduce the problem of environmental degradation of ground water in the area.