Assessment of Ground Water Quality as Influenced by Paper Mill Effluent in Namakkal District, Tamilnadu, India

Namakkal district in Tamilnadu, India is climatically semi-arid with low rainfall of ca.400 mm per year. Agriculture of sorghum and manihot through well irrigation in some localized areas is practiced in this district. In rivurine areas, cultivation of coconut, sugarcane and banana are also made. Effluents through sago industries, paper industries and sugarcane industries are generally polluting the soil and well water drastically in many parts of the district, which results in the soil not so fit for plant growth and well water not good for drinking and agriculture. Oddapalli is an agricultural belt in Namakkal district contains ca. 10,000 ha of farming land and most of it depends on well water for agriculture. Hence to asses the quality of ground water, the present study was attempted in the water samples collected from a well, located at Oddapalli where Seshasayee paper mill and Ponni sugar mill effluents are being discharged without proper treatment. The results of the study revealed that the samples contained significantly higher amount of total solids and dissolved CO2, elements such as Mg, Ca and Fe and the nutrients such as NO3, SO4 and PO4 than that of the standards prescribed by WHO. On the other hand, contents of dissolved O2 was very low in the well water in comparison to that of standard. Further, it has been estimated that the chlorides and total solids are higher in the well water then that of the irrigation standard. The over all study shows that the well water of Oddapalli is not adequately suitable for drinking as well as agriculture. Hence proper treatment of effluent of paper and sugar mills is suggested before discharging so as to fit for all domestic and farming purposes which also keep the soil environment in healthy status at maximum extent.