by Mamiseheno Rasolofonirina, Voahirana Ramaroson and Solofonirina Dieudonné Ravelomanantsoa
Original Research
Knowing the groundwater quality is important for the drinking water supply in the highland area of Madagascar, including Merimandroso Commune insofar that groundwater is the main source of drinking water for a large number of Malagasy people. In this way, this study assessed the shallow groundwater quality with special focus on nitrate occurrence using multivariate statistical techniques such as cluster analysis (CA) and principal component analysis (PCA). That was to determine the similarities among the water samples in terms of hydrochemical features and to identify the different mechanisms involved in the shallow groundwater hydrochemistry. The study was conducted on twenty-one water samples collected from dug wells. Cluster analysis grouped the water-sampling points into two main clusters: a highly nitrate polluted group (concentration greater than 50 mg/l) and a non-nitrate polluted group. The results showed a spatial variation of the groundwater chemistry processes, while no such variability was found temporally for water samples collected at different periods. Principal component analysis extracted three principal components accounted for over 82% of the total variance. It attributed the hydrochemical features of the water samples of high nitrate content to the nitrate pollution mechanisms along with the weathering of feldspar and ferromagnesian minerals. For some of the latter water samples, the water chemistry is likely affected by igneous rock weathering. This study confirmed both the usefulness and powerfulness of multivariate statistical techniques in water quality assessment, since they helped get a proper understanding of processes controlling the shallow groundwater chemistry.
American Journal of Water Resources. 2018, 6(1), 39-47. DOI: 10.12691/ajwr-6-1-5
Pub. Date: April 13, 2018
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by Pratap Kumar Panda, Rahas Bihari Panda and Prasant Kumar Dash
Review Article
Water is the elixir of life as there is no life without water and the rivers are the life line of our economy and culture. The river water pollution in India and abroad is a gigantic problem as it has affected not only of human and animal health but also the economy of the society as a whole. This work reviews a large number of research papers published by different researchers on river water pollution in India and abroad by critically analyzing and interpreting data on the different physico-chemical parameters and finds that the river water in India and abroad is highly polluted in respect of physically, chemically and bacteriologically with different hazardous pollutants including both chemical and microbial, coming from various sources such as industries, mines, agriculture, urban and domestic. Besides, this work finds and outlines the interrelationship among different physico-chemical parameters after careful analysis and interpretation of data and discussions published in different research papers. The dissolved oxygen (DO) and the pH are inversely related with temperature and turbidity and it is directly related with photosynthesis by autotrops. Further, biological oxygen demand (BOD) and free carbon dioxide are directly related with temperature. This review work gives opinions and suggestions to explain the experimental results by applying the standard concepts and outlines a brief guide line for the assessment of water pollution of river water.
American Journal of Water Resources. 2018, 6(1), 25-38. DOI: 10.12691/ajwr-6-1-4
Pub. Date: April 12, 2018
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by Morteza Tahami Pour Zarandi and Tahere Rahmani
Original Research
The agricultural sector is the largest water user in Iran, therefore, the government plans to increase water cost in this sector by increasing the price of electricity used by agricultural wells, thereby helping to reduce water losses. This research aimed to study the effect of increasing water price on agriculture profit. For this purpose, the cost of agricultural water was calculated in Qazvin province of Iran, for different electricity tariffs of the agricultural, industrial, and public sector of year 2015 by using economic appraisal method, which indicated that the cost of agricultural water was 0.035, 0.052 and 0.094 US$, respectively. Then, the volume of water consumptions and water price share in the cost of production and agriculture profitability were determined for five major crops in Qazvin province. The results indicated that a substantial change has taken place in the water price share, leading to negative profit in agriculture.
American Journal of Water Resources. 2018, 6(1), 15-24. DOI: 10.12691/ajwr-6-1-3
Pub. Date: March 13, 2018
16734 Views2902 Downloads
by Premananda Laishram and Kshetrimayum K.S.
Original Research
The Manipur valley is located as an intramontane basin filled with alluviums of fluvio-lacustrine origin of Quaternary age in the Indo-Myanmar Range of Northeast India. The valley is confined between 24°16′ and 25°2′ North latitudes and 93°41′ and 94°9′ East longitudes covering an area of ~1920km2with a population of more than 2 million people. This valley is mainly occupied by wetlands like ponds, swamps, paleochannels, lakes, agricultural fields and flood plains. Historically, these wetlands have been emotionally relating to cultural and ritual activities, fortification and recreational activities since the beginning of the Manipuri culture. To assess the quality of these wetland waters, several hydrochemical parameters like pH, Temperature, TDS, EC, ORP, HCO3, CO3, SO4, Cl, Na, K, Mg, Ca, PO4, F, H4SiO4, Ti, V, Cr, Cu, Ge, As, Rb, Sr, Nb, Mo, Hf, Ta, W were determined. The analysis suggests that the water is fresh and suitable for human consumption as well as and flora and fauna adaptation. Presently, the wetlands are used for water supplies for domestic, irrigation, industrial purposes and fish production. The rapid urbanization, massive increase in population, local climate change cause significant diminishing and shrinkage of these wetlands and thus creating a cultural gap as the ritual activities around these surface water bodies are no more practiced. Further, mismanagement and negligence on the treatment of domestic solid waste deteriorate the quality. Artificial eutrophication coupled with climate change as it reduces oxygen level and increases acidic level in the wetland waters further worsen the quality leading to the extinction of some fish species from these waters. Therefore, it is high time to avoid demolishing these wetlands and rejuvenate them to maintain the age old socio-cultural relationship it bears.
American Journal of Water Resources. 2018, 6(1), 9-14. DOI: 10.12691/ajwr-6-1-2
Pub. Date: March 08, 2018
11291 Views2784 Downloads
by Arpita Islam and A.T.M. Hasan Zobeyer
Original Research
Climate change have innumerable potential effects on agricultural production which is a key economic sector in Bangladesh. Bogra, Rangpur and Rajshahi in the north-west region have been selected as the study area. This paper aims to investigate the combined effects of climatic variables on ETo and NIR and to estimate the yield of the crop Boro and Aman in these study area. For testing the statistical significance of trends in different agro-climatic variables both parametric and non-parametric methods are used. The results of the analysis reveal that maximum temperature has decreasing trends of 0.20c, 0.10c and 0.30c per decade at Bogra, Rajshahi and Rangpur station and relative humidity has increasing trends in most 10-day periods. Sunshine hour and solar radiation show decreasing trends and minimum temperature and wind speed show increasing trends. It is found that ETo has decreasing trends at Bogra, Rangpur and Rajshahi station which are 0.41, 0.35 and 0.15 mm/day respectively per decade. NIR shows decreasing trend of 0.0428, 0.021 and 0.0434 mm/day per decade at those stations respectively. Sensitivity analysis was done in terms of percentage change in temperature, wind speed, relative humidity and radiation to identify the relative importance of climatic variables on Eto. Though the temperature is increasing due to global warming and it has a positive effect on ETo and NIR, the changes in other climatic variables are more prominent than the changes in temperature which result in a decrease in ETo and NIR. Aqua Crop version 4.0 software was used to estimate the crop yield Boro and Aman at the three stations. At Rajshahi station yield of Boro and Aman is found to be 6.407 and 4.732 tons per hectare respectively. At Bogra station, yield of Boro and Aman is 6.407 and 3.66 tons per hectare. The yield of Boro is found to be 6.42ton per hectare at Rangpur station. These values are found to be relatively close to the values obtained from the Agricultural Statistics Report, 2011of BBS.
American Journal of Water Resources. 2018, 6(1), 1-8. DOI: 10.12691/ajwr-6-1-1
Pub. Date: January 22, 2018
11044 Views2290 Downloads