GROUND WATER QUALITY- A CASE STUDY

Abstract

Water contamination (pollution) means changes in the physico-chemical and microbiological characteristics water as a result of anthropogenic activities which render it less useful: In ground water pollution, the pollutant plume normally has to migrate through the unsaturated zone before reaching the saturated medium where it moves along the hydraulic gradient getting ..merged with the groundwater by diffusion and convection. Sources of pollution can be classifed as (i) point source (occurance of unhygienic condition near hand pump, discharge of untreated industrial waste effluent), (ii) line source of pollution (waste effluent discharge into Unlined drain) and (iii) non point or diffuse source of pollution (return irrigation flow containing dissolved salts, pesticides etc). Human activites generally tend to increase ground water pollution in an area. Impact of urbanization is mainly in terms of bacteriological contamination whereas agriculture intensification is mainly responsible for chemical pollution. Main objectives of this dissertation work are : (i) To explain source and mechanism of ground water pollution with main emphasis on impact of human activities. (ii) To discuss chemical character of ground water ie. behaviour, stability, sources and significant properties of chemical constituents in ground water. (iii) To conduct experiments (selective field sampling and laboratory tests) for case study of ground water quality analysis. •in a rural area and compare results with previous studies for possible temporal and spatial pattern of ground water pollution...