The Effects of Ground Water quality due to urbanization in the city of

Visakhapatnam

M . V I J AYA R AT N A
R E G . N O : 41 9 20 6 1 01 0 0 8
2 N D Y E A R 1 S T S E M E S T E R , M . PL A N N I N G (E N V I R O N M E N TA L )
D E P T. O F A R C HI T E C T U R E , A U C E (A ), A U
INTRODUCTION
Most of the Earth's liquid freshwater is found as stored underground in aquifers and not in the
lakes and rivers.
The aquifers are also the source of base flow water for the rivers in the absence of rainfall.
Groundwater plays an important role in terms of the economic and social health of the urban
population of the developing world.
Cities need to supply water in various combinations as per demands of their private, public,
industrial and commercial users.
And the urbanization process has always altered the quality and quantity of the local aquifer
systems in various ways.
 INTRODUCTION
• Water plays a substantial role in all systems of life. Water, the important components for all alive beings, is
consistently polluted in all countries
• The global world is facing the challenge of decontamination of water. Inspite of various uses the organic
compounds are toxic in nature and environmental pollution by these poisonous chemicals is emerging as a
serous global problem.
• The significance of water for human is clear from the fact that 75% of its body requires of water. Industrial,
municipal wastes and chemical composts, herbicides, and insecticides have move in the soil, penetrated into
aquifers, and degraded the water quality.
• Cities located in coastal tract areas are generally built with rocks mainly composed of quaternary
sedimentary deposits from the sea and loose fluvial deposits. Uncontrolled groundwater pumping will also
reason a reduction in the groundwater level which can lead to land collapsing in quite large areas.
• In some coastal areas, intensive pumping of contemporary ground water has caused salt water to intrude in
fresher aquifers.
 NEED OF THE STUDY

•Coastal aquifers serve as major sources for freshwater supply in many countries around the world
•The fact that coastal zones contain some of the most densely populated areas in the world makes the need for
freshwater even more acute.
• The intensive extraction of groundwater from coastal aquifers reduces freshwater outflow to the sea and
creates local water table depression, causing seawater to migrate inland and rising toward the wells ,resulting
in deterioration in groundwater quality.
• This phenomenon, called seawater intrusion, has become one of the major constraints imposed on
groundwater utilization in coastal areas.
•Saltwater intrusion is one of the most widespread and important processes that degrade water quality to levels
exceeding acceptable drinking and irrigation water standards, and endanger future water exploitation in coastal
aquifers
•Seawater intrusion phenomena have been reported with different degree, in almost all coastal aquifers around
the globe
•The arid and semi-arid areas are mostly chronically water-stressed. The problem of seawater
intrusion is more severe in arid and semi-arid regions where the groundwater constitutes the main
freshwater resource, which is mostly non-renewable

KEYWORDS:
Groundwater pumping, Visakhapatnam coastal aquifer, Seawater intrusion, Water quality
 AIM , OBJECTIVES :
Aim:
The key objective of the study is to Assess the Groundwater Quality and Groundwater Pollution in selected study areas
of Visakhapatnam.
Objectives:
Specifically, the study sought to:
•To study the physio-chemical characteristics of ground water in and around the MSW dump site at Kapuluppada,
Visakhapatnam.
•To assess whether there is any contamination of ground water by the MSW dumpsite.
•To assess the impact of urbanization, industrialization, waste dumps and coastal atmosphere on ground water quality.
• To carryout precise estimation of heavy metals in ground water resources.
• To study the sea water intrusion due to over extraction of fresh water from the coastal
aquifer.
Selection of study area: