Aijrfans15 415

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American International Journal of Research in Formal, Applied & Natural Sciences

Available online at http://www.iasir.net

ISSN (Print): 2328-3777, ISSN (Online): 2328-3785, ISSN (CD-ROM): 2328-3793 AIJRFANS is a refereed, indexed, peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary and open access journal published by International Association of Scientific Innovation and Research (IASIR), USA (An Association Unifying the Sciences, Engineering, and Applied Research)

Groundwater Quality of Imphal Valley with special reference to Geoenvironment O. Geeta Devia and Arun Kumara, A.K. Chandrashekharb, D. Chandrasekharamb Department of Earth Sciences, Manipur University, Canchipur Imphal-795003, Manipur, India b Department of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai-400076, Maharashtra, India a

Abstract: Imphal Valley which is comprising an area of about 2000 km2 is situated at the heart of Manipur state the state has nine districts out of which four are in Imphal Valley where the population is concentrated in Imphal East and West districts having more than 804 persons per square kilometre at present. It is gradually facing a major fresh water crisis for the last few decades. To meet the growing demand for a sustainable integrated management of water, the only alternative source is groundwater, the most precious mineral of the earth. The preliminary studies on quality of groundwater with special reference to Geoenvironment in this thickly populated area of the state is discussed in this paper. Geologically, the study area consists of Quaternary deposit surrounded by Disang shale. The present study reveals that some of the groundwater samples from the valley area are rich in arsenic along with iron, magnesium and calcium. The arsenic content in the groundwater of study area ranges from 0.01 mg/l to 5mg/l. Some samples are unhealthy due to presence of high amounts of iron, chloride, calcium and magnesium affecting its taste and use. The ionic abundance is in the order of Na>Ca>Mg>K for cations and HCO 3>Cl>SO4>CO3 for anions. Besides the toxic trace elements, it is a special overview of Geo-environmental parameters like Sodicity, Residual Sodium Carbonate, Calcium, Magnesium, Sodium, Kelly’s Index, Permeability Index, Potasium, Chloride and Total Hardness. Results suggest that the groundwater of Imphal Valley is of good quality and can be safely used for domestic and agricultural purposes except some arsenic contaminated samples. Keywords: Arsenic, Kelly’s Index, Permeability Index, Imphal Valley, Iron, Quaternary. I. INTRODUCTION Groundwater is the key issue in the modern society because it is the common strand that links rapid population growth, health, agriculture, industry, ecosystem, climatic changes and urbanization. Imphal Valley of Manipur is a rapidly growing urbanization area and has however, limited resource of groundwater. It is a rhomb shaped valley having a width of about 30-35 km (E-W) and a length of about 60-65 km (N-S) having an area of about 2000 km2 , which is forming nearly 10% of the total area of the state. It lies between 24018’N to 25000’N latitudes and 93043’E to 94007’E longitudes (Fig.1). The valley is a large intermontane alluvial plain, representing a depositional environment (Singh 1996). It has a general amphitheatre like north-south extension, surrounded by hills made of Disang and Barail Groups of rocks. The valley consists of thick sequences of fluvio-lacustrine assemblages of sand, silt and clay. The total replenishable groundwater resource in Manipur is 0.012 mha.m/yr. Out of this, 0.002 mha.m/yr. is under provision for drinking, industrial and other uses. The remaining 0.010 mha.m/yr is still utilizable and we have still to discover and determine their quality. Recently, in the year 2006, arsenic contamination in groundwater from Kakching area, Thoubal district, Imphal valley, Manipur has been reported by the collaboration work of School of environmental Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata and Alliance for Development Alternatives Manipur (ADAM), Kakching. Consequently, Arsenic pollution in groundwater of the entire Imphal valley has also been reported (C.D.singh, 2010 ). This paper deals with a comprehensive water quality analysis concerning the geo-environmental parameters and toxic trace elements II. METHODOLOGY In order to assess the quality, thirty-six groundwater samples were collected from dug wells and hand pumps at different locations of Imphal Valley.Simplified techniques and methods for physico-chemical parameter including Arsenic and related metal ions which are given in American Public Health Association (APHA, 1998) and Trivedy and Goel (1984) along with the analytical techniques given in suitable water testing kits are followed. Water sample were collected in hard polythene bottles of 2½ litre capacity. This bottles were properly washed with distilled water and then rinsed with the respectively water samples to ensure compositional originality of water samples. In case of hand pumps, prior to sampling water was pumped out for about 10 minutes. The initial pumping serves to remove water in contact with the metal-well casing from the well-bore and adjacent aquifers

AIJRFANS 15-415; © 2015, AIJRFANS All Rights Reserved

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