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On the planet Earth, water resources are fundamentals for our existence. Despite the
fact that groundwater accounts for less than half a percent of the entire stock of fresh water
on our blue planet; it is the main controlling factor for economic development. It provides
more than half of humanity's freshwater for everyday uses; as well as 30% of irrigated
agriculture and industrial development. The prevailing trend towards huge population,
urbanization, water intensive life styles and hi-tech agriculture are leading towards overexploitation
and depletion of groundwater. Decreasing groundwater tables are posing serious challenges
to the sustainability of agriculture in North India. Depletion of water tables;
saltwater encroachment, groundwater pollution, water logging and salinity are major consequences
of overexploitation and intensive irrigation.
Punjab, a modest-sized state tucked away on the northwestern border of India, is
often known as the bread basket of India. During Green Revolution, the spectacular increase
in agricultural production in Punjab has been made possible due to large-scale adoption of
high yielding crops and cultivars along with assured irrigation facilities and high fertilizer
use. Irrigation facilities extended from 54%-95% of cultivated area, and the fertilizer use
leaped from about 30-190 kg/ha percent area in 2001-02 as compared to only 54% in
1960-61 (Arora and Gajri, 1998). Punjab has exhausted its upper layer of groundwater and
farmers are now exploiting deeper aquifers. Overexploitation and unplanned development
of groundwater can disturb the dynamic ecological balance and leads to depletion
and salinization of aquifers (Galloway et
al., 1998).
Barnala is situated in the southern part of
Punjab. It is located at 30°23' N 75°32'
E 30.38°N 75.53°E (Figure 1). It has an average elevation of 227 m (744 ft). The climate of the
block is characterized by the dryness of the air, an intensely hot summer and cold winter. The
area forms a part of Indo-Gangetic plain. The master slope of the area is towards the
southwest. Soils of the block are loamy sand, and sandy loam kaller land is also spotted at a few
places.
Water samples were drawn from bore-wells and hand pumps during pre- and
post-monsoon period of the year 2008. Seventy groundwater samples were collected from each district
in March 2003 (pre-monsoon) and same locations were again sampled in September
2003 (post-monsoon) to evaluate seasonal variations 70 water samples were collected in
plastic containers as possible to avoid unpredictable changes in physicochemical characteristics.
The testing of samples was done according to the procedure prescribed by APHA (1995).
Present study comprises of interpretation and analysis of water samples collected from 70
different locations (Figure 1) selected randomly from the Barnala block. |
