Assessment of Groundwater Quality for Irrigation in Hafizabad District, Punjab, Pakistan
Tahir Maqsood1*, Khuda Buksh2*, Nadeem Ahmad3* and Dr. Muhammad Shafiq4*
1Directorate of Land Reclamation Punjab, Pakistan
22oil Survey, Punjab, Pakistan
3Assistant Professor, UCP, Bahawalpur, Pakistan
4Land Reclamation, Irrigation Deptt. Punjab, Pakistan
Submission: October 05, 2016; Published: November 02, 2016
*Corresponding author: Tahir Maqsood, Land Reclamation Punjab Pakistan.
How to cite this article: Tahir M, Khuda B, Nadeem A, Dr. Muhammad S. Assessment of Groundwater Quality for Irrigation in Hafizabad District, Punjab, Pakistan. Agri Res & Tech: Open Access J. 2016; 2(5): 555597. DOI: 10.19080/ARTOAJ.2016.02.555597
Abstract
The water and environment has become an emotive issue with the people and policy makers. The chief causes for the pollution of water and environment are anthropogenic activities of human beings. The primary objective of this paper is to study the groundwater quality parameters in the surrounding tube wells of Hafizabad district, Punjab, Pakistan. The availability of groundwater, namely fresh water, with the passage of time is becoming too less. This alarming situation provokes the scientific community for further investigations and research in the field of groundwater exploration of fresh water and natural recharge estimation endeavors, which are the most important components essential to formulate dependable groundwater management strategies in scarcity, affected regions. Hydrochemical studies were conducted in Lower Chenab Canal System District, Hafizabad, Punjab. Pakistan Groundwater samples from 71 locations were collected from bore wells during 15 May - 15 June 2013 (Pre-Monsoon) and 15 October - 15 November 2013 (Post-Monsoon) period and analyzed for EC, SAR and RSC parameters. Based on various indices for irrigation purpose the average value for EC, SAR and RSC parameters were 1.26 (pre) 1.23 (post), 5.12 (pre) 5.09 (post) and 1.53 (pre) 1.53 (post) respectively. On the basis of these parameters and water quality standards, the water is classified for safe irrigation uses. The concentration of EC in groundwater ranges from 0.80-1.40 dSm-1. EC, SAR and RSC reflect that the water belong to fit or unfit for irrigation. The calculated results suggest that most of the samples are within the permissible limits which can be used for irrigation. High SAR and RSC content in groundwater can be attributed to the continuous water rock interaction during the process of percolation with soluble salts bearing country rocks under arid, low precipitation and high evaporation conditions of the study area. During last few years, the utilization of surface and groundwater for drinking, industrial and agricultural purposes has increased manifolds but consequently it is observed that the water is polluted and affecting the human health, soil nutrients, livestock, biomass and environment in certain areas. Hence a study has been carried out for the quality of the available ground water.
Keywords: Groundwater; Tube wells/Bore wells; EC; SAR; RSC fit; Unfit
Introduction
Pakistan, is a tropical county especially Punjab with a vast diversity of climate, topography and vegetation. Though blessed with fairly high annual rainfall, it is not uniformly distributed in time and space resulting in bulk of the rainfall escaping as runoff. This results in incomplete utilization of available surface water. The scarcity of surface water especially in the lean season in most parts of the country means that groundwater plays a decisive role. Water is one of the most indispensable resources and is the elixir of life and primary cause for the origin of life on earth planet. Water constitutes about 70% of the body weight of almost all living organisms. Life is not possible on this planet without water. It exists in three states namely solid, liquid and gas. It acts as a media for both chemical and biochemical reactions and also as an internal and external medium for several organisms. About 97.2% of water on earth is salty and only 2.8% is available as fresh water from which about 20% constitutes groundwater. The main source of water in the earth is through rivers, lakes, oceans and the subsurface groundwater aquifers. Groundwater is highly valued because of certain properties not possessed by surface water. Water can be used for various purposes like domestic, agriculture, industrial and etc.
Due to increase in human population and technology growth day by day, the available storage of groundwater is over exploited without considering its adverse effect on the aquifer system, which causes depletion in water level and deterioration in quality of groundwater. The availability of groundwater, namely fresh water is too less. The storage of groundwater mostly depends on the rainfall and how much recharge is taking place during rains. But due to non-uniform distribution of rainfall and failure of monsoon in our country, the existing available groundwater resources are not able to meet the increasing demand of human population [1]. This situation provokes the scientific community to further research in the field of groundwater exploration of fresh water and natural recharge estimation, which is the most important components essential to formulate dependable groundwater management strategies in scarcity, affected regions. The present study gives out the objectives, to estimate the fitness and unfitness of the groundwater samples and to assess the groundwater quality for irrigation purpose.
Location and Extent
In order to assess the groundwater quality for irrigation uses a Lower Chenab Canal System District, Hafizabad, Punjab. Pakistan is selected. Geologically the area consists of granites, gneisses and pegmatite of igneous origin belonging to the Archaean age. The soils of the study area are clay loam with pH 7.83 and ECe is 4.02 d Sm-1 [2,3]. The area of Hafizabad is about 2367 km2. Hafizabad is situated at 800 feet (240 m) above sea-level in central Punjab. The district is located between 32°-20’ (32°4′0.120″N) north latitudes and 73°-12’ and 73°-46’ (73°40′59.880″E) east longitude and Altitude is 207 m. The river Chenab forms the northern and northwestern boundary of the district. Hafizabad shares its borders with Sheikhupura District and Gujranwala District in the east, Mandi Bahauddin District in the north, Sargodha District in the west, Faisalabad and Chiniot District in the south. Hafizabad is situated at a distance of 303 km from the Federal Capital, Islamabad, and is 109 km away
from the Provincial Capital, Lahore. The district has a total area of 2,367 square kilometers and comprises two tehsils, namely Hafizabad and Pindi Bhattian. Major villages are Kaleke Mandi, Sukheke Mandi, Jalalpur Bhattian, Vanikay Tarrar, Burj Dara, Lawaray Kalan, Narianwala Shreef, Shameer Bhattian, Kolo Tarar and Rahgo Syedan. The climate of the district is hot and dry during the summer and moderately cold in the winter. The maximum summer temperature in the month of June is 45 °C (113 °F), while in winter, during January, the lowest minimum temperature is 1 °C (34 °F). Owing to the proximity of the hills, there is more rainfall in the east than the west. The monsoon season usually starts in the middle of July and continues until September. The soils are alluvial and fertile. Majors’ crops are rice and wheat. Besides, Sugarcane, Bajra, Tobacco, Maize, Jawar, Mash, Moong, Masoor, Gram, Maize, Oil Seed such as Rape/ Mustard and Sunflower are also grown in minor quantities in the district. The granites are pink and grey in color, hard massive to foliated and well jointed. The soil cover is of well developed residual soil of weathered granite. The soil is fairly permeable with brown-reddish color. The soil can absorb most of the rain except for more intensive rains, which can cause considerable surface flow and erosion.
Research Methodology
Groundwater samples were collected in pre-cleaned 1 liter polyethylene bottle following from the bore wells, which are used for the irrigation purposes during May 2013 (Premonsoon) and October 2013 (Post-monsoon) period. The water samples from the wells were collected after pumping out water for about 10 min to remove stagnant water from the well. Seventy one groundwater samples were collected and analyzed for EC, SAR and RSC parameters [4,5]. The GPS values were measured with the help of Garmin Oregon 550. The groundwater sample locations in the study area are represented in Table 1.
Results
In 71 water quality samples only 8 samples are unfit while 63 are fit for irrigation purposes. The unfit water samples are due to higher electrical conductivity and RSC values. The salt concentration is generally measured by determining the electrical conductivity of water. Excess salt increases the osmotic pressure of the soil solutions that can result in physiological drought conditions. It has been observed from the analysis that the electrical conductivity in both seasons (pre monsoon & post monsoon) on average basis has a minor difference i.e. 1.26 (pre) 1.23 (post). Hence the electrical conductivity has no difference in both season and in whole year. The minor change in electrical conductivity might be due to leaching of salts due to rains in post monsoon. The highest value of conductivity may be due to high concentration of ionic constituents present in the water bodies. The collected water quality samples are 88.73% are found fit and 11.27% are unfit for irrigation purpose. The groundwater quality parameter values in the study area are shown in the Table 1. The average values of the each quality parameter are shown in the Table 2. The minimum and maximum values of EC, SAR and RSC parameters are shown in Figure 1.
The majority alkalinity values (EC, SAR, RSC) in the study area are within the permissible limit and are ranging from 0.80- 1.50 d Sm-1, 1.20-.90 and 0.20-3.60 meq/l during pre and post monsoon period. The high alkalinity of groundwater in certain locations in the study area may be due to the presence of bicarbonate and some salts. The alkaline water may decrease the solubility of metals. Few values of SAR and RSC are beyond the safe limit. These values are slighter higher in pre monsoon than post monsoon. High SAR and RSC content in groundwater can be attributed to the continuous water rock interaction during the process of percolation with soluble salts bearing country rocks under arid, low precipitation and high evaporation conditions of the study area. During last few years, the utilization of surface and groundwater for drinking, industrial and agricultural purposes has increased manifolds but consequently it is observed that the water is polluted and affecting the human health, soil nutrients, livestock, biomass and environment in certain areas.
Conclusion
Groundwater quality in and around Hafizabad has been analyzed in the present work. The majority area has fit ground water quality due to the influence of seepage and recharge from Chenab River, Lower Chenab Canal and Qadirabad Balloki Link Canal. High SAR and RSC content in groundwater can be attributed to the continuous water rock interaction during the process of percolation with soluble salts bearing country rocks under arid, low precipitation and high evaporation conditions of the study area.
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