Erode city, the head quarters of Er

Erode city, the head quarters of Erode District is located on the bank of Cauvery River
in Tamil Nadu state. It lies between 11° 17’ N and 11° 23' N latitudes and 77° 40’ E and 77°
46' E longitudes with an approximate aerial extent of 120 km 2 . The city depends on Cauvery
River for its drinking water supply. In addition to Cauvery River water, people in this region
also depend on the groundwater resources for their domestic, agricultural and industrial needs.
Urbanization and improper disposal of solid wastes lead to contamination of groundwater and
surface water resources in this region. Municipal solid wastes of the city are presently
disposed as open landfills at three distinct sites namely Vendipalayam, Vairapalayam and
Semur. The leaches of the open dump yards directly contaminate the groundwater and surface
water resources leading unsuitability of water for drinking at many places. Hence, a detailed
study has been carried out using Geographical Information System (GIS) to understand the
spatial variation of surface water and groundwater quality. About forty three groundwater
samples and seven surface water samples were collected during February, 2009 from the
study region, and the samples were analyzed for various physical and chemical parameters
such as pH, Electrical Conductivity, Total Dissolved Solids, Alkalinity, Hardness, Na + , K + ,
Ca 2+ , Mg 2+ , Cl ,
HCO3
,
CO3
2,
SO4
2,
NO3
and
F .
The concentrations of physical and
chemical constituents in the water samples were compared with the Bureau of Indian
Standard (BIS) and World Health Organization (WHO) standard to know the suitability of
water for drinking. The study indicates that the water quality parameters exceed the
permissible limits for drinking at many locations leading the water unsuitable for drinking.
The spatial variation of groundwater quality parameters was also plotted using GIS.
Key words: Spatial variation, groundwater contamination, Geographical Information System