Water quality assessment of shallow aquifer based on Canadian Council of Ministers of the environment index and its impact on irrigation of Mathura District, Uttar Pradesh

Abstract

Sixty-five water samples were collected in July 2016 in the Mathura district and have experimentally determined the physio-chemical parameters and evaluated by comparing their values with Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). The aim of the study is to find out the status of water quality in Mathura district. Results show that Total Hardness(TH), Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Cl− and Mg2+ are found to be very much higher than (>50%) the permissible limit. Majority of the samples have high values NO3− and Cl−. The sources of Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+ and K+ are from the weathering process. In general, water chemistry is governed by complicated weathering procedure, ion exchange, impact of horticultural and sewage. CCME WQI values ranged from 1.862 to 82.254 and shows that the quality of water is good to poor. Agriculture indices like Gibbs Plot, Percent sodium (Na%), Residual Sodium Carbonate (RSC), Sodium Adsorption Ratio (SAR), Permeability Index (PI) Potential salinity and Magnesium hazard has values 0.50 to 0.99, 8.37% to 86.66%, −90.59 to 7.71 meql−1, 9.59 to 96.34, 1.82 to 21.82, 4.58 to 112.83 meql−1, and 45.57 to 8221.03 respectively. These values show that the quality of water is poor and moderately suitable for irrigation purpose. It also indicates that an anthropogenic effect on groundwater quality needs water management strategy according to their regional demand for humans. Keywords: WQI, CCME, Potential salinity, Residual Sodium Carbonate, BIS