Evaluation of Ground Water Quality for Irrigation Purpose of the Areas of District Bahawalnagar, Pakistan

Abstract

Water is life line for all living creation including human beings. Economy of Pakistan is agricultural based and it mainly dependent on canal supplies. Before the introduction of irrigation system the water table was sufficiently deep but due to lack of drainage facilities and improper management practices, adopting by the farmers, the water table came up resulting water logging & salinity problems. Indus basin abundant resources of ground water, the quality of which various from sweets to very saline in different tracts. However a thin layer of good quality is present almost everywhere, where exists an immense potential for the use of these water resources for agriculture, municipal and industrial use. Keeping in this view a detailed study was carried out to provide guidelines to farmers and researches for better crop production by adopting water management practices. Total 23600 water samples were collected from all the five tehsils of district Bahawalnagar during the year July 2003 to June 2010. These samples were analyzed and categorized according to suitability criteria of water quality evaluation. 38.64 percent water samples were found fit, 7.65 percent were marginally fit and 53.7 percent water samples were found unfit for irrigation purpose. Majority of water samples were found hazardous for irrigation purpose. Almost all the area has highly saline water, which is affected yield of various crops.

Keywords: EC, SAR, RSC, Ground water, Bahawalnagar, Pakistan.