Qualitative Assessment of Groundwater Quality in a Tank Irrigated Watershed, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract

The groundwater plays a major role in hard rock terrains with limited source. The quality of the available source further determines the utility of the groundwater. Hence an attempt has been made in this study to determine the quality of water and to categorise them for the different purpose, like drinking, domestic and irrigation purposes. 37 groundwater samples were collected around the tank irrigated watershed of wellington reservoir and analysed for major cations and anions. The analysed samples were classified based on the drinking water standard, SAR, RSC, Na%, electrical conductivity, total hardness, permeability index, corrosivity ratio, chloride values etc. The study concludes that few of the samples fall in good category and many of them indicate low suitability and therefore groundwater from these areas have to be used judiciously for irrigation purpose.