Groundwater Quality Assessment of Arid Northern Gujarat (India)

Abstract

Availability of groundwater and its quality has always been a major concern for developing irrigated agriculture particularly in arid regions where surface water resources are insufficient or meagre to meet irrigation demand. An assessment of groundwater quality has been done for arid northern Gujarat state (India) mainly consist of Banaskantha district. Based on EC, SAR and RSC values the quality of groundwater has been classified in Dhanera, Deesa, Tharad, Vav, Diyodhar and Bhabhar tehsils of Banaskantha district. The analysis of groundwater samples indicated that in majority of area (75%) groundwater has moderate sodicity with SAR<18. The SAR ranges from 0.1 to 89 with an average of 13.3. Highest SAR was found in Tharad (>18) tehsil followed by moderate in Vav and Bhabhar (10-18) and low(<10) in Dhanera, Deesa and Diyodhar tehsils. About 55% area has EC >3.0 dS m-1 reflecting moderate to high salinity whereas in about 97% of area RSC found to be <2.5 Me L-1. Based on EC, SAR and RSC criterion, the irrigation quality of groundwater has been assessed for each tehsil and classified as C1S1R1, C2S2R1, C2S3R1, and C3S2R1.