Groundwater Quality Evaluation for Irrigation and Drinking Utilities Collected from Sadar Upazila of Jamalpur District, Bangladesh

Abstract

The study was undertaken to evaluate groundwater quality both for drinking and irrigation usage collected from the Sadar upazila of Jamalpur district, Bangladesh. Total 20 groundwater samples were collected from the whole area and analysed for various physicochemical parameters following standard protocols at the Department of Agricultural Chemistry, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh during March to December 2017. Concentrations of different heavy metal (Fe, Mn, Cu, Pb, Cr, Cd and Zn) in groundwater samples were measured by an atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS). Major cation chemistry showed their dominance in order of Ca > Mg > Na > K. Among the anions, HCO3 was the most dominating ion, which makes all groundwater unsuitable for irrigation. But considering major cations and anions, all groundwater samples were rated as suitable for drinking. In context of heavy metals, the amounts of Mn, Cd and Pb in groundwater were comparatively higher than the standard limits, which makes 14, 8 and 19 samples problematic for irrigation, and 13, 18 and 1 samples unsuitable for drinking, respectively. Electrical conductivity (EC) and sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) reflected that all groundwater samples were low to medium salinity (C1-C2) and low alkalinity (S1) hazards classes. As regards to hardness, out of 20 groundwater samples, 9 samples were classified as moderately hard, 10 were hard and only 1 sample was very hard in quality. According to residual sodium carbonate (RSC), 18 groundwater samples were found in suitable class, 1 sample was rated as marginal and the rest 1 was categorised as unsuitable class. The study concluded that HCO3, Mn, Cd and Pb were the major contaminants in groundwater of Sadar upazila of Jamalpur district, Bangladesh. Finally, the study suggested that the groundwater in this area needs to treat to minimise the amount of contaminants before using both for irrigation and drinking.

Hydrochemical characterization of groundwater for consumption and agriculture: A case study from Phulpur Upazila, Bangladesh

“…Based on the standards set by Wilcox (1955), all samples were classified as excellent (SSP < 20%). The findings of this study align with the results obtained by Zakir et al (2018) and Nizam et al (2016).…”

“…All 20 groundwater samples from our study fit within this acceptable range, implying that the water is apt for both consumption and sustained crop irrigation. Such findings mirror the conclusions of past studies (Prasanth et al, 2012;Mostafa et al, 2017;Zakir et al, 2018), yet diverge from Yasmin et al (2019). The TDS in the groundwater fluctuated between 79 to 298 mg/l, with an average of 133.5 mg/l (Table 2).…”

“…Based on the classification system introduced by Wilcox (1955), the diagram representing the quality of water for irrigation and domestic use indicated that six samples could be categorized as being in excellent to good conditions (Figure 4). A study conducted by Zakir et al (2018) in Bangladesh yielded similar findings, while Prasanth et al (2012) reported the highest values falling within the range of good to permissible for irrigation in Kerala, India.…”

“…(2017). However, Zakir et al (2018) reported EC values that lie in the lower to mid salinity range in their groundwater research.…”

“…Furthermore, factor analysis was performed using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) software to explain the associations between the observations. Scatter and Wilcox diagrams, as well as USSL diagrams, were drawn (Prasanth et al, 2012;Zakir et al, 2018).…”