Current World Environment

Introduction

Water is one of the foremost essential components of all living ofranisms.¹ Availability of good quality water for drinking purpose is very essential for healthy human society.² One time, surface water was the major source to fulfill water requirement but now a days, both sufrace water and ground water are used for drinking, agriculutre, industrial and domestic purpose.

Ground water is sustainable source of fresh water, and as vital source for drinking and domestic use, it has to meet all physical and chemical parameters for safe use. Although most of the ground water sources are still supposed to be safe but once, source is contaminated, then practically it would be very difficult to clean that up.

Gound water is liable to contamination through different sources like different land compositiond, different rain conditions, use of different chemical fertilizers, pesticides & insecticies and different depths of bore wells. The present paper has been carried out to evaluate the physico-chemical characteristics in reference to nitrate of ground water of Khajuwla area of Bikaner district.

Description of Studly Area

Khajuwala is located in Bikaner District of Rajasthan state. The position of Khajuwala in Inira Gandhi Canal Project are is at 8 K J D. This area is surrounded by main canal and Distributary’s canal. There is huge farming with maximum utilization fertilizers pesticides and insectidies. Area is having large number of tube wells and hand pumps 16 tube well and hand pump water samples were collected form this region from area, situated in 8-KJD, 13 KJD, 15 KJD, 19-KYD, 20-KYD, 32-head, Madho diggi etc.
 

Table -1: Quarterly variation of concentration of nitrate in different ground water samples Click here to view table

Experimental

In the present work, 16 ground water samples were collected form the different stations of Khajuwala and surroundign area. The samples were collected during the month of July, Oct(2005) and Jan (2006). Samples were collected in sterilized bottles using standard method.³ Spectorphotometric method has been used to determine nitrate in water samples.^4-5
 

Figure -1: Graphical representation of concentration of nitrate in different ground water samples Click here to view figure

Water Analysis Result

The analytical results of ground water samples from Khajuwala are shown in Table - 1 and Fig -1.

Results and Discussion

Permissible limit of nitrate for drinking water are given in Table - 2.
 

Table - 2 Click here to view table

It was found for sample No 2, 4, 6, 7,10 & 11 that nitrate concentration is greater in comparison to sample No 3,5,8,9 & 12. Concentration of nitrate has been found to increase after rainy season in sample No 1,2 4,6,7,10 & 11 but now much variation was found for sample No 3,5,8,9 & 12 in this period.

The Sample No 1,2,4,6,7, 10,11,13, 14,15 and 16 are hand pump water samples while sample No 3,5,8,9&12 are tube well water samples. This indicates that leaching of nitrate has occured, which in rainy season. Hand pump water samples were found more contaminated thant tube well water samples. The reason for this may be assigned to variation in depth of wells.

Sample no 13, 14 , 15 and 16 are found to be far from cultivated area i.e. present in villages wher fertilizers and pesticides are not used, so nitrate concentration did not increase appreciably. Nitrate can cause diease in babies called methaemoglobinaemia, which reduces the amount of oxygen in the blood of babies. In extreme cases this causes blue baby syndrome. Nitrate conentration can reduces by using bio-fertilizers, in place of chemical fertilizers in cultivated area, for which proper marketing and proper education is necessary and it will be a great step towards eco-friendly agriculture.

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Principal Dungar College, Bikaner for providing necessary facilities and to Dr. R.P Mathur, Dr. S Jain, Dr. K.P Soni, Sh. H.P Yadav, Sh. J.S Acharaya, Sh. H.S Bhandari and Sh DD Gudasaria for fruitful discussion and keen intrest in the work.

References