Groundwater Quality Assessment and Thematic Spatial Mapping of Hisar District in Haryana (India)

Abhey Singh¹, Surinder Deswal²

^1,2 Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology Kurukshetra, Kurukshetra, India.

Abstract

Groundwater is a primary and precious resource for potable water in regions with low rainfall and a lack of surface water sources. The growth of such regions heavily depends on the availability of quality and quantity of groundwater. In the present study, the quality of groundwater with respect to its suitability for drinking purposes of Hisar district in Haryana (India) has been assessed by examining the physico-chemical parameters (pH, TDS, Ca2+, Cl1-, TH, and F1-) of groundwater samples collected from 25 locations (rural and urban) during the pre- and post-monsoon periods. The Ca2+and Cl1- ions concentration, and in turn total hardness (TH) at several studied locations exceeded the standard threshold limits of 75 mg/L, 250 mg/L and 300 mg/L, respectively, as prescribed by the Bureau of Indian Standards during the pre- and post-monsoon periods. The water quality categories based on water quality index (WQI) revealed that 4% and 24% of the sites had excellent (WQI = 0 to 25) and good (WQI = 26 to 50) water quality categories, respectively, during the pre-monsoon period, compared to 8% and 20% of the sites during the post-monsoon period. Seven sites (28%), representing a mix of urban and rural sites spreading all over the study area, have been in the unfit water quality category (WQI >100) during both the pre- and post-monsoon periods. Thematic spatial distribution maps – groundwater quality parameters and WQI, have also been generated using QGIS software to show the geographical distribution of water quality metrics in the studied area.

Keywords: Groundwater; Physico-chemical parameters; Water quality index (WQI); Thematic spatial distribution maps; QGIS

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