Mamta Bisht, Ph.D. Scholar, IARI, Pusa New Delhi (India)
Groundwater is one of the precious natural resource of earth that sustains all human Activities. It is the major source for drinking and irrigation in Mewat region of Haryana. Mewat district of Haryana is situated in hot-dry semi-arid region spread over the states of Haryana, Rajasthan and western Uttar Pradesh. This region is considered as one of the least economically and socially backward region in the country due to
poor quality natural resources. Keeping in view, a study was carried out to find out the groundwater quality status for irrigation and livestock drinking purposes during premonsoon and monsoon i.e. March and August, 2019. Twenty six groundwater samples were collected from various sources i.e. open wells, bore wells and hand pumps with their GPS co-ordinates. Types of wells selected for the study were mostly used for irrigation and livestock drinking purposes. The quality of groundwater samples including EC, pH, alkalinity sodium (Na+), chloride (Cl-), potassium (K+), sulphate (SO42-), fluoride (F-), Nitrate (NO3 -), calcium (Ca2+), magnesium (Mg2+) were analyzed standard methods. Spatial variability maps of groundwater quality parameters such as EC, residual sodium carbonate (RSC) and sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) were also prepared using ArcGIS-10.4 software. As per spatial variability maps, the higher salinity or poor groundwater quality were found at Naglashahpur village which comes under Nagina block (EC range >55000 μS/cm) whereas least salinity or good
groundwater quality was observed at Tauru village which comes under Tauru block (EC range <1000 μS/cm). In whole, around 75 % of the regions showed poor groundwater quality conditions for irrigation and livestock drinking purposes. This information will be helped us for further groundwater resource management and planning at particular region.