Analysis of Groundwater Quality in the Coastal Stretch of Bhavnagar, Gujarat

Groundwater is fresh water that soaks into the soil and is stored in the tiny space (pores) between rocks and particles of soil. Groundwater accounts for nearly 95 percent of the nation’s freshwater resources. Groundwater quantity and quality are equally important factors in the context of modern water management. Quality of water is mainly affected by pollution from different sources. In the coastal stretch, the major cause for groundwater pollution is seawater intrusion. In the present study, an attempt has been made to evaluate the water quality in the coastal stretch of Bhavnagar, Gujarat. Groundwater samples were collected from selected locations and analyzed for major physiochemical parameters. For the hydrochemical analysis, Piper trilinear diagram was created for major hydrochemical parameters such as Ca, Mg, Na, K, CO3, HCO3, Cl, SO4, and TDS using GW_Chart software. The Weighted Arithmetic Water Quality Index (WAWQI) approach proposed by Brown et al. 1972 was used to construct the WQI using MS-Excel software. From the Geohydrologist Groundwater Investigation Unit-3 in Rajkot, the hydrogeochemical parameters were gathered. The collected data has been examined using GW_Chart and QGIS version 3.28.1 water quality modeling software. QGIS software has been used to do spatial inverse distance weighted (IDW) interpolation of WQI for well points. This study indicates that the seawater intrusion has heavily affected the groundwater quality of coastal stretch of Bhavnagar.