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Abstract

The paper examines the quality of water in parts of Hingna area of Nagpur district, Central India for its irrigational suiatability. For this purpose, a total of twenty two (22) water samples from dugwell (7), borewell (11) and stream (4) were collected and analysed for major ions. The abundance of major ions show Ca^sup 2+^ > Mg^sup 2+^ > Na+ > K+ = HCO^sub 3^^sup -^ > Cl> > > F > NO^sub 3^^sup -^ in case of borewell samples, and Mg^sup 2+^ > Ca^sup 2+^ > Na+ > K+ = HCO^sub 3^^sup -^ > Cl- > SO^sub 4^^sup 2-^ >F- > NO^sub 3^^sup -^ in case of dugwell and surface water samples respectively. The hydrochemical investigation of surface and subsurface water indicates the Ca^sup 2+^-HCO^sub 3^^sup -^ type water predominantly. The important constituents, influencing the water quality for irrigation viz. electrical conductivity (EC), total dissolved solids (TDS), sodium percentage (Na%), sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), Kelley's ratio (KR), magnesium adsorption ratio (MAR), permeability index (PI), chloroalkaline indices (CAI), bicarbonate hazards and residual sodium carbonate (RSC) were determined and compared with the different irrigation water quality classification systems. The study reveals that all the groundwater samples (except one) are suitable for the irrigational purpose. The groundwater pollution, resulted due to the industrial effluents, is clearly observed in case of one of the borewell water sample showing high content of EC, TDS, Alkalinity, Ca^sup 2+^, Mg^sup 2+^, TH, Na+, HCO^sub 3^^sup -^, SO^sub 4^^sup 2-^ and Cl-. The same polluted water, if used for irrigation, may cause severe problems to the soils and crops and therefore it is recommended to avoid the same water for irrigation practices.

Keywords: Hydrochemistry, Irrigation water, Water quality, Hingna, Nagpur, Central India.

I. Introduction

Groundwater is the prime natural resource and precious national asset. It has attained an important position in overall water resource development plans and programmes of developing country like India, which has predominantly agricultural economy (Pradeep Kumar and Srinivas, 2012). Continued development and increased use of water combined with its reuse affects the quality of water, if not protected (Singh and Singh, 2008). Hence, the water quality issues and its management strategies need to be given greater attention in such regions (Ramesh and Elango, 2011). Depending on...

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