Quality assessment of groundwater for drinking and irrigation use in semi-urban area of Tripura, India

Abstract

The ground water quality of urban and rural area of Agartala (Tripura State, India) was studied to examine the suitability or otherwise of their use for drinking and irrigation purposes. Twenty one ground water samples were randomly collected during post monsoon season and analysed with reference to the World Health Organization (WHO) standards and Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). The analysed data was validated using the best-fitted models. Interpretation of analytical data shows that Na-K-HCO3 and Ca- Mg-HCO3 are the dominant hydrochemical facies in the study area. The percent sodium level of samples indicated that 90 per cent samples are in permissible category of the sodium hazards for agricultural applications. The US salinity diagram illustrates that most of the groundwater samples fall in the field of C1S1, indicating low salinity and low sodium water, which can be used for irrigation on almost all type of soil. Other best-fitted model, like Permeability Index (PI), Kelly’s Index (KI), Wilcox classification, SAR and RSC values also indicate that ground water is moderate to good for irrigation purposes. However, the presence of certain degree of cations, anions, iron and heavy metals indicates that the ground water in the study area is facing stress which could change the quality of the water in the near future.