A Study on Seasonal Variation of the Groundwater Chemistry in Andhra University Campus, Visakhapatnam

Abstract

An attempt has been made in this work to evaluate the quality of groundwater at Andhra University campus, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India, and its suitability for domestic purpose. Groundwater samples are collected from the twenty-five bore wells located in the campus during the post-monsoon (November 2015–February 2016), Pre-monsoon (March 2016–June 2016) and Monsoon (July 2016–October 2016) periods at regular intervals of time and are analysed for various physico-chemical parameters using standard laboratory procedures. Data analysis is done by using Aquachem 2014.2 software. Piper tri-linear diagrams and Durov diagrams are drawn using the concentrations of various cations and anions. The dominance of major cations and anions is observed as Mg²⁺ > Ca²⁺ > Na⁺ > K⁺ and Cl⁻ > HCO₃⁻ > SO₄²⁻ > CO₃⁻, respectively. From Piper plots, it is observed that majority of groundwater samples exhibited that Ca²⁺ + Mg²⁺ significantly exceeded Na⁺ + K⁺ and Cl⁻ + SO₄²⁻ exceeded HCO₃⁻ + CO₃²⁻ in Post-Monsoon, Pre-Monsoon and Monsoon periods. The pH and TDS parts of the Durov plot reveal that the quality of groundwater is in the range of drinking water standards during all the seasons.