Quality, Standards and Testing

The report attempts to identify sampling sites for water quality monitoring in Narmada basin. The assessment of water quality conditions over a wide area with respect to time and space requires the monitoring of activities to be carried out in a network. The location of a permanent sampling station is probably the most critical factor in a monitoring network which collects water quality data. If the samples collected are not representative of the water mass, the frequency of sampling as well as the mode of data interpretation and presentation becomes inconsequential.

My house is about 20 years old and is located in R T Nagar in Bangalore. In 1990, I had got a borewell dug. The Borewell is about 150 feet deep and has been giving me excellent quality water until about 2 years ago when I started noticing muddy water. The water that is pumped to an overhead tank contains fine particles of mud which tends to settle down in the overhead tank.

The report presents the evaluation of water supply system of Kakinada town in Andhra Pradesh. The neglect of hydrology of a region, while undertaking planning and development works in an urban environment, has serious consequences, the most notable being non-availability of enough potable drinking water to citizens. Water budget studies can be undertaken with all the available records to improve the functioning of such systems and to identify additional alternate resources.

The report looks at groundwater quality and presents the results of the chemical analysis of groundwater samples from openwells & borewells of Belgaum district. The study broadly covers these aspects - (i) groundwater quality evaluation of the district (ii) identification of groundwater quality problems in various parts of district (iii) classification of groundwater, and (iv) application of DRASTIC model for assessing the vulnerability to groundwater pollution.

In the present study, surface and groundwater quality monitoring has been undertaken in parts of Udhampur district in Jammu and Kashmir in order to evaluate its quality for domestic and agricultural purposes. Water sources are polluted by four kinds of substances: traditional organic waste, waste generated from industrial processes, chemical agents of fertilizers & pesticides used for crop production and silt from degraded catchment.

The report attempts to analyze the shallow groundwater table and water quality data for about 20 years pertaining to the Krishna delta. The trend analysis of groundwater level data of shallow wells indicates that in the upper part of the delta, the groundwater table moved up during the period 1979 to 1999. This may be due to the dense canal network in the delta and increase in irrigated area over a period of time.

The report deals with development of reaeration coefficient for Indian condition using mathematical approach and field studies. Of the various constituents, which determine the quality of water, Dissolved Oxygen is the most important parameter indicating the health of a stream. There is a continual replenishment (reaeration) or utilization (deoxygenated) of Dissolved Oxygen due to inflow of waste load at different points in the stream. When a waste load is discharged into a flowing stream, it is mainly subjected to advection, dispersion and reaction kinetics. Waste Load Allocation (WLA) studies provide information to assist in making effective decisions on levels of treatment required for a source or sources of pollutant loads.

The report attempts to provide solutions to the twin problems of waterlogging and salinity in the irrigated command area through various drainage or traditional reclamation measures viz controlling the intensity of irrigation, providing drainage system, lining, improving natural drainage, preventing seepage or adopting modern technology for application of water.

The subsurface aquifer systems in Mahanadi delta region in Orissa (India) is largely characterized by two groups of freshwater aquifer systems, both of which are prone to saline water mixing/migration with time and development:

• The south western Mahanadi delta region is represented by unconfined to semi-confined freshwater aquifers underlained by brackish/saline aquifer systems with a diffusion boundary.
• The north eastern parts of Mahanadi delta is represented by deep freshwater confined aquifers overlained by brackish/saline water aquifers with aquitard/ aquiclude boundary.

The study provides an analysis of groundwater quality to identify probable pollution or contamination in coastal aquifers of Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh. Sampling surveys have been conducted in the months of May 99, August 99 and November 99 and about 186 water samples were collected from shallow wells, filter points, canal water and rainwater. The spatial and temporal variations of water quality parameters are presented in the report.