Quality of Ground Water and its Effect on Soil Properties in Samdari-Siwana-Balotra area of Western Rajasthan

Abstract

Studies on the quality of ground water in Samdari-Siwana-Balotra region of western Rajasthan revealed, that these waters are moderate to highly saline and sodic with EC range of 240 to 33213 uScm^-1 and pH from 7,0 to 9.5. These waters have marked concentration of chloride of sodium with high soluble sodium percentages in 97 per cent samples. In all cases, calcium is lower than the magnesium, except in few samples of low salinity of C₁ and C₂ classes. The value of SAR ranges from 1.85 to 96, and 54.5 per cent water samples fall under high to very high SAR classes. The content of RSC in well waters ranges from 0.4 to 38.6 me L^-1 and 29.20 per cent waters have RSC more than 5 me, L^-1, The saline water irrigated soil has pH of 7.1 to 8.5 at the surface and 7.3 to 8.6 in the subsurface, while the EC varies at these locations from 249 to 9565 and 359 to 2123 uScm-1, respectively. The total area affected by the use of such problematic waters is 880.75 km²