Agri dept begins aquifer mapping in 3 south Punjab districts to seal saline water sources

CHANDIGARH : As part of a programme to promote crop diversification, the state agriculture department has started the process of aquifer mapping so as to seal saline water sources in three south Punjab districts where water is misfit for irrigation and drinking.

The National Institute of Hydrology (NIH), Roorkee, is supporting the department in assessing fresh and saline groundwater sources in 40 villages of Muktsar, Faridkot and Fazilka.

As part of the project, 142 piezometer wells have been dug to check the quality of water in the aquifers.

Four aquifers in the area are target of the assessment project. “These aquifers are at four sub-soil levels — 5, 12, 20 and 28-30 metres. We want to make sure that the water from saline aquifers doesn’t get mixed with the fresh ones,” said Gopal Krishan, an NIH scientist.

Agriculture joint director Jaswant Singh said, “The saline water sources will be sealed with bantonite sand so that water doesn’t mix with fresh water aquifers.”

As per an analysis of data collected with the help of piezometer wells, 30% of the wells have quality water, 41% have marginal to moderate fresh water quality, 17% are saline, while water of the rest is unusable because of high salinity. “Salt tolerant varieties of wheat and paddy have been developed by the Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Karnal, which could be grown on the land that has groundwater with high salinity,” said Gopal Krishan.

The NIH will submit a report on the quality of water to the department by September 30.

“After getting the assessment report, the agriculture department will run an extension programme in south-western districts of the state on digging tubewells for quality water,” Jaswant Singh said.