Assessment of Irrigation Water Quality Parameters at UPSTREAM and DOWNSTREAM of Kanhan River: A Case Study

Abstract

Water is fundamental constituent for food security, harvest and cattle. Farming requires huge amount of water with designated quality for irrigation and different production processes. Harvest and its production in the arid and semi-arid area is dependent on irrigated agriculture. The hot and dry weather of these areas needs that the water used for harvest does not have soluble salts in high amounts that are detrimental effect to the plants or have an adverse consequence on the soil properties. The Kanhan River is non-perennial, intermittent river and important right bank tributary of the wainganga river originates from the high lands of Chindawara District of Madhya Pradesh and flows in south east course for about 160 kms before it enters in the Maharashtra state near Raiwari village in Saoner Taluka of Nagpur District. The Kanhan River water is the most important water resource for industrial and agricultural purposes in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. Central Water Commission is monitoring water quality in Kanhan River for the more than 25 years. In the present study various parameters such as pH, Electrical Conductivity (EC), Sodium percentage (Na %), Boron(B), Sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), Residual sodium carbonate (RSC) Total Coliform(Tcol) and Faecal Coliform (Fcol) were studied to monitor the Water Quality status of Kanhan River for irrigation purpose. For this, the data of two Water Quality Monitoring Station namely Ramakona (upstream) and Satrapur (downstream) of recent five water years from 2014-15 to 2018-19 data has been used assessment of water quality. The analysis results show observed significant changes in pH (6.3 to 8.7 ), EC (181 to 1040), Na % ( 4% to 51% ) , B ( 0.04 to 3.59 mg/L), SAR (0.1 to 2.9 ), RSC( 0.0 to 2.20 ),Tcol( 20 to 16000 MPN/100ml) and Fcol (20 to 16000 MPN/100 ml). The obtained data from both the monitoring location is compared with different well known national and international irrigation water Quality standards. It is observed that 90.1 % samples value of EC is suitable for soil of moderate drainage, 6.93 % samples value of percent sodium is permissible class, 4.95 % samples value of Boron is doubtful class, 3.96 % samples value of RSC is marginal class and 15 % samples of Faecal Coliform above the standard limit of World Health Organization. The various Physical (Photo- catalysis treatment, Thermal treatment, UV treatment) techniques and Chemical (Ozone treatment, Hydrogen peroxide treatment, Sodium hypochlorite treatment, Chlorine dioxide treatment) techniques are used to improve the Water Quality of Irrigation Water. In addition to that various management techniques are also used such as More frequent irrigation, Selection of salt tolerant crops and varieties, Use of extra water for leaching, Conjunctive use of fresh and saline waters, Cultural practices, in addition of an alternate source of water, crops production with low water requirements and Organic matter applications. By utilizing phytoremediation technology to get treated water for reuse for irrigation. The phytoremediation established a safe and economic technology for water treatment compared to the expensive conventional techniques.