Assessment of irrigation water quality (Ground water) of Melur block, Madurai district, Tamil Nadu

The irrigation water quality is gaining importance day by day due to the changes in the urbanisation and industrialisation which over utilise the under ground water. The ground water samples were collected from 15 revenue villages of Melur block, Madurai, Tamil Nadu during March, 2017 at variegated intervals, processed and analysed for the physico-chemical, anionic and cationic parameters to find out their quality by arriving calculated parameters viz., RSC (Residual Sodium Carbonate) and SAR (Sodium Absorption Ratio). Though the overall values lies well within the safe limit of water quality, the 25 percent water samples found to be alkaline, 42 percent found to slightly saline & two percent found to be critical in salinity levels. The highest value of 9.23, 2.62 dSm-1, 3.52 and 8.51 of pH, EC, RSC and SAR were observed in the irrigation water samples. The good quality of 92.8 per cent, marginally saline 2.9 per cent and marginally alkali of 4.3 per cent of irrigation water samples have been recorded as per AICRP, 1989 classification.