Assessment of chloride concentration in groundwater: A case study for Belgaum City

Abstract

Chlorides are important in detecting the contamination of groundwater by sewage. The groundwater in Belgaum city was analyzed for their chloride content and other related parameters in January and May month during the year 2010. In present study twenty five groundwater samples collected from open wells and analyzed for chloride content. The chloride concentration varied from 34.86 mg/l to 333.05 mg/l during the month of January and 31.77 mg/l to 297.86 mg/l during the month of May. High concentration of chloride was observed downstream of Lendhi nala. High coefficient of variance indicates a great variability of chloride concentration in groundwater. A positive correlation of chloride with calcium, magnesium and sodium indicates non carbonate hardness and with TDS and EC indicates salinity. It is observed that, there is increase in chloride concentration (based on data from 2002 to 2010) in various parts of the city indicates mixing of sewage and groundwater. The regression equations have been developed between chloride and other water quality parameters.