Studies on Groundwater Development in Kanavi Halla Sub-Basin of Ghataprabha River Basin, Belagavi District, Karnataka State, India

Abstract

Groundwater resources are extremely significant in the areas of arid and semi-arid tropics particularly in the hard rock terrains. This has led in serious search for groundwater resources. To meet the human requirements there is a need of artificial groundwater recharge, to enhance the quantity as well as quality. Hence, issues of water quality, water potentiality in the subsurface and its management need more attention in the present days. The quality of groundwater is determined for various parameters of groundwater Samples of Kanavi Halla Sub Basin (KHSB). The PCA technique is applied on water quality parameters, from which four and three components are extracted with 80.28 % and 75.01 % of total variance in pre monsoon and post monsoon season respectively. The extracted components suggest that the sources behind the higher loadings of each factor are by geological, agricultural, rainfall, domestic wastewater, and industrial activities. Based on water quality index (WQI), it was noticeably depicted that 2/3rd of the KHSB groundwater quality falls under poor to very poor condition and hardly 26% of groundwater available is portable. Hydrogeochemical study in KHSB for both drinking and agricultural suitability reveals as most of the sample are exceeding the limits as according to the recommended various standards. A total of 40 Vertical Electrical Sounding (VES) were conducted throughout KHSB. Totally 17 type of curves are obtained and 16 VES have been considered as good potential sites. Results shows that the maximum number of curves are associated with A type which refers to hard rock terrain, whereas curve associated with H type indicates water potential site. Dar-Zarrouk (D-Z) parameters are calculated in order to characterize the aquifer in order to check risk assessment for contaminants through seepage in terms of protective capacity. Total of 11 thematic layers are utilized for integration of Site suitability for groundwater recharge (GWRZ) mapping. They have classified as Very Low to High where the category with “Very low to low” covers larger area. Though several artificial recharge structures are existing, some more check dams, farm ponds, percolation tanks are recommended in this study area.