Hydrochemistry for the assessment of groundwater quality in the Kathua region, Jammu and Kashmir, India

Abstract

Groundwater is a vital natural resource in the Kathua region of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, Northern India, where it is used for domestic, irrigation, and industrial purposes. The main purpose of this study was to assess the hydrochemistry of the groundwater and to determine its suitability for drinking, irrigation, and industrial uses in the Kathua region. In this study, 75 groundwater samples were collected and analyzed for the physicochemical parameters such as electrical conductivity (EC), total dissolved solids , pH, and various cations and anions. The analyzed data were computed for designing groundwater quality index to know the suitability for drinking purposes. The EC, sodium percentage, permeability index, and magnesium hazard were assessed to evaluate groundwater suitability for irrigation. Further, the corrosivity ratio was assessed to find the groundwater quality criteria for industrial purposes. The comprehensive results obtained from the water quality index indicate that almost all groundwater samples are suitable for drinking. The ionic abundance is in the order of Ca2+ > Na+ > Mg2+ > K+ for cations, and HCO3− > SO42− > Cl− > NO3− for anions, respectively. The Piper diagram shows that hydrochemistry of the groundwater is dominated by alkaline earth metals (Ca2+, Mg2+) and weak acids (HCO3−). According to the Gibbs diagram, the chemistry of groundwater is mainly controlled by the rock–water interaction process, indicating that most of the groundwater samples of the area are of bicarbonate type. The EC results classify the groundwater as excellent to good; the sodium percentage also indicates that the water is fit for irrigation. According to the Wilcox and USSLS diagrams, and permeability index, a majority of samples are suitable for irrigation with a few exceptions. The magnesium hazard depicts that there are few samples (19%), which are unsuitable for irrigation. According to the corrosivity ratio, 65 samples are safe for industrial use while the remaining 10 samples are considered to be unsafe. Thus, it is found that most of the groundwater in the area can be used for drinking, irrigation, and industrial purposes.

Comparative Analysis of Groundwater Quality Index for Bhavani River Basin Using Remote Sensing and Statistical Analysis

“…The Ca 2+ enters the aquifer system through the leaching of calcium minerals present in the soil layers (Kouser et al, 2022;Ram et al, 2021). From the analysis, Ca 2+ observed for the 1972 decade was 28-178 mg/l and for the 2010 decade, the value was 6-100 mg/l.…”

Hydrochemical Characteristics and Suitability Assessment of Groundwater Quality for Irrigation

“…To determine the reliability of the major cations and anions, it is usual to calculate the ion balance error (IBE). It is proposed that this value should be less than ±5% to consider an analysis valid [19]. The standard methods used are shown in Table 1.…”

Groundwater Quality Assessment for Drinking and Irrigation Purposes at Al-Jouf Area in KSA Using Artificial Neural Network, GIS, and Multivariate Statistical Techniques

“…Ten important physicochemical parameters were used for calculating WQI (Table 1). WQI has been calculated according to a previous study [20].…”

“…To determine the suitability of groundwater for irrigation purposes, important parameters for groundwater quality such as EC, Na + %, SAR, MH, KR, and PS were calculated according to [20,[36][37][38][39] using the following equations:…”

“…The water quality index (WQI) is essential to evaluate the water quality that can be compared with national or international standards [19]. Also, the quality of groundwater for irrigation purposes can be assessed using various indicators such as electric conductivity (EC), sodium percentage (Na + %), magnesium hazard (MH), potential salinity (PS), sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), and Kelley's ratio (KR) [20][21][22].…”