SUSTAINABILITY OF GROUNDWATER IN ROORKEE TOWN, HARIDWAR DISTRICT, UTTARAKHAND

Abstract

The studies show that increasing urbanization is resulting in exponential rise in water demands of the cities around the world thus placing the groundwater resources at considerable stress. In the present paper, sustainability of groundwater of Roorkee townin Haridwar District, Uttarakhand State has been evaluated on the basis of certain identified sustainability indicators. A viable set of sustainability parameters has been identified after reviewing the relevant literature on the subject. These include assessment of water resources, deforestation rate, a water barrier, index based on per capita annual availability of water, and an integrated water stress score which takes into consideration a set of multiple relevant parameters. For assessment of water resources water level data of the shallow unconfined aquifers has been collected by establishing a groundwater monitoring network of 19 shallow wells. A mass balance of groundwater resource estimation has been applied for assessing the groundwater resources of Roorkee town. On this basis the stage of groundwater development in the study area was found to be close to 65%, placing the Roorkee town and its suburbs in Safe category. Groundwater samples for quality analysis have been collected from 30 hand operated pumps in the area and a Ground Water Quality Index (GWQI) has been calculated in order to get an overall status of the groundwater quality. From the comparison of GWQI, it is concluded that the groundwater quality has degraded considerably between 2004 and 2012 and even though groundwater is fit for drinking except at few localities. Water demand estimation for Roorkee town has also been done which comes out to be 54.012 MLD and whereas a survey of Roorkee town carried out to estimate the actual amount of groundwater extractions in the area gave a figure of 52.009 MLD. For evaluation of sustainability parameters, deforestation rate for year 2000-05 has been calculated using Earth Resources Data Analysis System (ERDAS) IMAGINE 8.6 which comes out as 7.9% and is not considered alarming. The estimation of Water Barrier Index (WBI) have put Roorkee town and its suburbs in `lower stress' category whereas by Integrated Water Stress Score (IWSS) approach also the study area is categorized as `low stressed' to `moderately stressed'. It is found that the groundwater resources development is sustainable in Roorkee town and its suburb. This study has resulted in formulation of guidelines for assessment of sustai nab ility. Keywords: Sustainability Indicators, Groundwater Resources, Groundwater Quality Index, Roorkee Town, India.