Better Management Of Ground Water Source For Drinking Purpose In Belgaum District Of Karnataka India

Abstract - Groundwater is a vital source that provides drinking water in rural areas of Belgaum district. People of rural areas depend on groundwater for all or most of their supply of their drinking water. Since ground water is the only source of drinking water its protection and proper management becomes top priority. Further this water being potable it has a direct bearing on the health of those thousands of villagers. Hence the present work is an attempt to investigate the physico-chemical variations and bacteriological studies of ground waters bore wells 26 dug wells collected from rural areas viz Halaga and Honaga near Belgaum city. The water samples were analyzed for physico-chemical parameters such as pH total solids total hardness total alkalinity chloride sulphate nitrate fluoride and iron and bacteriological study. Iron content showed high in 5 of 7 26 4 of 8 locations respectively in Honaga and Halaga villages. In 2 open wells of Halaga village TDS TH 26 Chloride values are found to be high as compared with that of drinking water standards. In Honaga village out of seven two sites are having E -coli and in Halaga village out of eight sites three sites are having E-coli. This study clearly indicated that the quality of ground water does not comply with both Indian and WHO standards for drinking purpose. Findings also reveal that almost 70 - 75 of the analyzed ground waters are found to be not useful for human consumption. After having enquiry with the representatives of the rural areas some suggestions have been made.