Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Assessment of Drinking and Irrigation Water Quality of Surface Water Resources of South-West Kashmir, India

Abstract

Nadeem A. Bhat, Aijaz A. Bhat, Som Nath, B. P. Singh and D. B. Guha

Surface water samples have been collected from various streams of SW Kashmir and analyzed for major ions and trace elements to determine the mechanisms controlling the surface water chemistry and suitability of water for drinking, domestic and irrigation purposes. The order of cations is Ca > Mg > Na > K and anions is HCO3 > Cl > SO4 > NO3. As per the Gibb’s diagram, the major ion chemistry of surface water is controlled by rock-water interaction. The evolution of surface water into Ca-Mg-HCO3 water type of Piper trilinear plot is due to easy dissolution of carbonate minerals and less time for water-rock interaction. Surface water samples are characterized by one main trend of Ca-Mg-HCO3 i.e., carbonate dissolution of Langelier-Ludwig diagram. The major ions and trace elements in the water samples are well below the standards prescribed by WHO and BIS for drinking purposes. Based on EC and TDS classification, the water is fresh, good for irrigation and desirable for drinking purposes. The water samples fall between soft to hard categories of hardness classification with 16.66% belonging to soft, 50% to moderately hard and 33.33% to hard categories. The suitability of water for irrigation was evaluated based on the quality parameters and plots of water like Magnesium Content, Sodium Percent, Wilcox diagram, US Salinity hazard plot and Doneen’s plot. According to the values of these parameters the surface water of the study area was found suitable for irrigation and the water can be used for irrigating most of the crops and majority of the soils.