The groundwater in many parts of as many as 13 districts in Haryana has been found unfit for drinking.
The groundwater occurring in the southern, western and central parts comprising of Sirsa, Fatehabad, Hisar, Jind, Jhajjar, Bhiwani, Mewat, Mahendragarh, Rewari and Faridabad districts is mostly saline and not suitable for drinking purposes. Apart from this, districts namely Gurugram, Palwal, Rohtak recorded low potable rating, as chemical parameters were found to be higher than permissible limits in 50 percent samples in these districts, according to the latest report of Central Ground Water Board (CGWB).The groundwater samples in parts of these districts were found to have high fluoride or nitrate or combination of all, besides high salinity, stated the 2020-21 report of CGWB for Haryana.
In previous 2019-20 CGWB report, the groundwater samples in parts of 11 districts in Haryana were found unpotable.
In many rural and semi-urban areas of Haryana, groundwater is a major resource for drinking and Irrigation especially in areas where surface water is inadequate. Salinity, chloride, fluoride and nitrate are key parameters that are considered for evaluating the suitability of groundwater for drinking purposes.
Sodium was the dominant cation in the majority of groundwater except for the districts namely Ambala, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Panchkula and Yamunanagar. Its concentration varied widely from 1 mg/L at Khot kalan in district Hisar to 2657 mg/L at Kot in district Palwal. Sodium concentration was found to be less than 100 mg/L in less than half of well waters, the report stated.
The CGWB report concluded that almost all groundwater is suitable for irrigation on well-drained soils for growing salt tolerant crops like wheat, mustard, rice, barley and maize etc. However, at a few places where the EC of groundwater goes beyond 5000 S/cm, such waters are not suitable for customary irrigation. It also recommended that areas identified with unsuitable or marginally suitable water quality should be monitored on micro level.