Status of Water Table Depths and Water Quality in District Karak, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan
Status of Water Table Depths and Water Quality in District Karak, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan
Muhammad Jamal Khan1, Abdul Malik2*, Muhammad Shahzad Khattak2, Naveedullah1, Naeem Ijaz3 and Ishaq Ahmad4
ABSTRACT
Groundwater is one of the valuable resources for life sustenance in arid and semi-arid regions of the world. In recent past, its contamination due to lack of balance between its exploitation and recharge has posed a serious menace on its utilization for various purposes. Current study was conducted in District Karak during June to November, 2009 with the objectives to assess the changes in groundwater table depths due to withdrawal and the water quality parameters and to find the effect of small dams on recharge of ground water aquifer. Water table depths data from the ground surface, discharge of the wells, water quality parameters such as Sodium Adsorption Ratio (SAR) and Electrical Conductivity (ECw) were determined. Suitability of groundwater for irrigation purposes was evaluated following various classification schemes. The results show that in most part of the study area, water table is showing slightly rising trend, except Sur Dag, Narre Khawar and Takht-e-Nasrati areas, where the water table is declining. On other hand, the numbers of tube wells extracting ground water are increasing rapidly. The wells discharges of the sampled tube wells varied from 2 to 14 l/s and the horse power of the pumping units ranged from 2 to 30 hp and the pumps efficiencies of the wells ranged from 22 to 73% with an overall average of 42%. The number of hours the farmers operates their well ranged from 2 to 10 hours per day. The water quality reveals that pH of the water varies from 8.2-8.9 while ECw ranges from 0.4-4.7 dS/m. Out of 36, only inseven villages groundwater has ECw higher than the useable limit recommended by WAPDA (1974) and Sodium Adsorption Ratio was within safe range, following various classification schemes. In Richard’s salinity diagram, it is observed that 21 (60%) villages water fall in C2-S1 class indicating medium salinity having low Sodium concentration and may be suitable to salt tolerant crop. Regular assessment of water resource and constant monitoring of water quality is recommended. An appropriate measure may be adopted for recharge of the ground water aquifer through development of small dams in the catchments plain.
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