HYDROGEOLOGICAL STUDIES WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE GEOCHEMISTRY OF GROUNDWATER IN BORUNDA-BILARA AREA, DISTT. JODHPUR, RAJASTHAN

Abstract

"Deny man food and his body can sustain life for days. but .deny his water and death must cons within hours". Edward ,Jhonson. Water is nature's greatest gift to man, who has become a slave to water. it is an essential requirement for the existance of,human beings as well as vegetable and plant kingdom. with explosively increasing population and a steadily rising standard of living in many countries, water is increasingly recognized as a basic necessity of life. Where the demands for safe drinking water has been met, national development and an increase In living standard has gone forward, where it has not been met, the development has lagged and living standards have remained low. Water scarcity may not pose a serious problem for the people living in areas which are climatologically and physiologically favourable for sustaining surface water bodies such as perennial rivers,natural lakes and springs etc. However, in and and semiarid regions, tike Rajasthan where rivers are few and of ephemeral type and a few lakes that are present contain mostly very saline water, the requirements of water In such areas is not only to a very small extent from surface water bodies and people have to depend on groundwater. There '!s a local saying that in Western Rajasthan, particularly in the district of Jaisalmer one Can unhesitatingly ask for ghee(butter) but not for water. This shows the extent of water scarcity. The famines are very common in this region, hence the groundwater has become still more important. The first and foremost need of the people of Rajasthan is water - water to drink, water to rear livestock, water to grow food, water to sustain industries - in short, water for all around development. Groundwater investigation is, therefore, a eine•qua.non for the develop-meet of Rajasthan. Geology plays a very important role in assessing the quality and quantity of groundwater. In view of such vital i,eportance of groundwater in Rajasthan, the author had taken up, hydrogsologtcai investigations with particular reference to the gsocheeistry of groundwater in Aorunda.Biiara area of Jodhpur district. This report gives it description of the observations made by the author in a period of one year. Every effort has been made to make this report informative and it is hoped that the work would be of great help in the groundwater development of the area.