Sustainable Water Management Solutions for Large Cities (Proceedings of symposium S2 held during the Seventh IAHS Scientific Assembly at Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, April 2005). IAHS Publ. 293, 2005, 257-263

2 Sher-e-Kashmir Univ. of Agricultural Sciences & Technology, Jammu 180 009 (J&K), India

Abstract Water quality samples collected during 1999–2000 from three selected irrigation sources, two of them on minor lift irrigation schemes (LIS) (Bhor LIS (BLIS) and Chatha LIS (CLIS)) on perennial streams fed by municipal/industrial effluents from Jammu City, and one (Gidargalian LIS (GLIS)) from a canal originating from the Chenab River, were analysed with the following objectives: to monitor the physico-chemical characteristics of the water; to compare the water quality of different sources and to evaluate the suitability of water for irrigation. A Piper diagram of the water samples showed a majority of water samples under Ca–Mg–HCO₃–CO₃ hydro-chemical facies. Total hardness, total dissolved solids, electrical conductivity, alkalinity, sodium absorption ratio, calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, and chloride concentration were found to decrease in the order BLIS, CLIS and GLIS. All the three locations were found to have almost the same pH and sulphate concentration. Dissolved oxygen values were in the order GLIS > CLIS > BLIS, which show highest pollution level at BLIS and lowest at GLIS. The USSL Staff classification showed that the majority of water samples collected from BLIS and CLIS were in the high salinity–low SAR category, whereas the majority of water samples collected at GLIS were in the medium salinity–low SAR category.

Key words India; irrigation water quality; physico-chemical characteristics; USSL Staff Classification