Evaluation of Quality of Irrigation Water in Coastal Bhavnagar District of Saurashtra Region (Gujarat)

摘要

The quality of irrigation water is a key issue in irrigated agriculture. Injudicious irrigations even with good quality waters, may turn many a good soils into saline or alkali ones. In majority of arid, semi-arid and coastal regions groundwater is either the major or the only source of irrigation to supplement the scanty rainfall (Yadav et al. 1983). The majority of ground waters in these regions are of poor quality due to excessive salt concentration and high sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) and residual sodium carbonate (RSC) values. Scarcity of good quality of waters forces the farmers to use available saline or sodic water for irrigation (Girdhar 1996). Such waters are being used in Bhavnagar district of Gujarat knowing fully well that quality andyield of the crops are continuously decreased. Therefore, the present investigation was undertaken to study the quality of irrigation water in coastal Bhavnagar district (Longitude: 21°46' N -72°09' E; latitude: 21°72' N-72°15' N) of Gujarat, one ofthe fastest growing cities in the country undergoing rapid urbanization and industrialization. Urbanization has led to immense pressure on ground water resources and has resulted in quality deterioration of ground water.