An overall hydro-geochemical aprraisal of groundwater along the eastern fringe of chilika lagoon, Odisha, India during pre-monsoon session, 2018

Abstract

Groundwater is perennial storage of water which is credited by recharging and debited through drafts or well capture. About 80% of people in India live in villages and mostly depend upon wells for domestic uses and agriculture because of non-availability of surface water bodies. Climatic anomalies, uplift/down drift and excess draft have been depleted or contaminated the ground water. Groundwater is easy to extract, a cheap source, self-rechargeable and well protected from contaminants. Hence it is the best choice for drinking water, domestic, irrigation and industrial purposes. Irrigation is the largest user of ground water in underdeveloped country like India, today. Overexploitation of groundwater for the requirement of agricultural yield to its utmost maximum quantity as led by prolific growth of population and extensive inhabitation in past few decades, encroachment of unfavourable coastal areas became a common practice. This unplanned expansion of inhabitation and thereby agriculture, not only hampering the natural ecosystem, but also imparting a deep-routed problem in overall geo-hydrological scenario of the area. Overpumping resulted in rapid acceleration to seawater ingress, and thereby degrading the overall quality of groundwater. Optimum storage capacity of the underground reservoirs is also deteriorating. The villages around the Chilika lagoon, Odisha, facing an infrequent problem relating to the same issue of excess rate of groundwater pumping, because of the excess salinity of available surface water and it is expected with time this issue will become more acute. In the present study an attempt has been made to evaluate the major physicochemical parameters of groundwater from dug-wells and tube-wells along the eastern fringe of Chilika Lagoon, Puri district, Odisha, India, during pre-monsoon season of 2018. Investigations were carried out to get an overall scenario on seawater ingress and the effect of that in regard to the suitability of groundwater towards domestic and irrigation purposes. Anthropological interventions and growth of agriculture in the newly formed island were also taken into account for the overall ground water status of the studied area. A length of 50 km from Bramhagiri to Malud was studied in the present work along the eastern fringe of the lagoon.