GROUNDWATER RESOURCES AND ASSESSMENT OF WATER QUALITY IN PARTS OF YAMUNA RIVER BASIN THESIS Submitted for the award of the degree of Doctor of philosophy In Geology By MASHKOOR KHAN DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGY ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY ALIGARH-202002, (INDIA) 2018 Introduction ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First and foremost, I am grateful to Almighty ALLAH who blessed me with strength and courage to overcome all the obstacles in the way of this strenuous journey. Without his sufficient grace and mercy, I would have not been able to complete this task. A special debt of gratitude is graciously extended to my Supervisor Prof. Shadab Khurshid for his continuous support and motivation during this research work. His astonishing endurance, inspiration, immense knowledge, and apposite supervision made this work more efficient and effective. He provided me a wealth of information during the research work as well as writing of this thesis. His aptitude to deal with adverse circumstances assisted me to overcome many tough situations and ultimately facilitated to finish this work. It is only his supervision that this work comes into existence. I could not have imagined having a better advisor and mentor for my Ph.D. work. I am indeed grateful to the Chairperson, Prof. Syed Ahmad Ali, Department of Geology, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, and Ex-Chairperson Prof. Abu Talib and Prof. Mahshar Raza, for providing me all the necessary facilities during the course of this research work. I am obliged to him for holding me to a high research standard and forcing strict validations for each research result. I am also grateful to Prof. Akram Javed, Department of Geology, Aligarh Muslim University, for sharing his expertise, constructive comments and valuable guidance which make my Ph.D. experience productive and stimulating. I am highly thankful to Dr. Seraj Khan (Scientist-D) Central Ground Water Board, Northern Region Lucknow, Dr. Sunil Kumar, Uttar Pradesh State Groundwater Department, Agra Region and Mr. Sahroj (Assistant Engineer) Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam Department, Agra Region for providing various data during my research work. I am indebted from the core of my heart to Dr. Shakeel Ahmad for the cooperation and invaluable assistance during the geochemical analysis in the geochemical lab, Department of Geology, A.M.U., Aligarh. He always shared his valuable experience during the analysis. Without his devotion to work, it would have been very difficult. I am also grateful to the Chairperson, Department of Botany, A.M.U., Aligarh, for providing me laboratory facilities to carry out the analysis of trace elements in water. Most importantly, it would not have been possible without the love and patience of my family. My immediate family, to whom this research work is dedicated, has been a constant source of love, concern, support and strength all thorough this work period. I would like to express my Acknowledgement heart-felt gratitude to my father Mr. Matloob Khan who encouraged me in every endeavor of my life and at the same time guidance to recover when my step faltered, my mother Mrs. Chand Bibi whose immense care, love and affection has boosted me morally and spiritually and my brothers Mahfooz Khan and Masroor Khan for their undying support and faith in me. My umpteen and extreme thanks are due to my wife, Mrs. Zeenat Khan for her constant encouragement, support and care. I would like to express heartfull gratitude to my seniors and well-wishers especially Dr. Shamshad Ahmad, Dr. Lal Miyan Khan, Dr. Sadiq Ahmad and Dr. Tauheed Khan for their guidance and suggestion. I owe special thanks to my fellow labmates, Siraj Ahmad, Saddam Husain, Salman Ahmed and Ms. Aqsa Irfan for their motivation, stimulating discussions and all the memorable works we had done together in all these years. Furthermore, I am thankful to my friends especially Dr. Mohammad Adnan Quasim, Dr. Mohd. Saif, Dr. Javed Ikbal, Intekhab Alam, Faraz Ahmad, Pavanesh Kumar Singh, Mohd Amir, Shamsuddin, Mohd. Azaruddin, Altaf and Faiz Ahmad. They helped me and always with me in my difficult years. I greatly value their friendship and deeply appreciate their belief in me. I express my warm thanks to Ahmad Shafi for his unconditional support at every time during my research work, when needed. I must appreciate the financial support received from UGC as UGC-BSR Fellowship in the form of Junior Research Fellow (JRF) followed by Senior Research Fellow (SRF). Finally, I would like to place on record my sense of gratitude to one and all who helped me directly or indirectly during the course of this research work. Mashkoor Khan GROUNDWATER RESOURCES AND ASSESSMENT OF WATER QUALITY IN PARTS OF YAMUNA RIVER BASIN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS Submitted for the award of the degree of Doctor of philosophy In Geology By MASHKOOR KHAN DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGY ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY ALIGARH-202002, (INDIA) 2018 ABSTRACT Water is the elixir of life; without it life is not possible. In regard with this, groundwater is the most important natural source of water for drinking, industrial and irrigational purposes. The water demand is increasing day by day due to rapid increase in population, expanding agriculture activities and increasing industrialization. This development in industrial and agricultural sector has resulted in the over exploitation of groundwater and deterioration of water quality in the research area. The Yamuna river sub-basin forms a logical unit for hydrogeological investigations. It is bordered by two natural hydro boundaries, the Yamuna river in the west and Karwan river in the east. The study area represents a combination of two extreme hydrogeological situations that is one of water logging and the other of aquifer depletion. The study area covers an area of 2808 km2 which lies between latitudes 27˚05′ 00"N to 27˚45′ 00"N and longitudes 77˚40′00"E to 78˚00′00"E. The present investigation has been carried out in Yamuna river sub-basin which depicts a comprehensive and balance picture of the aquifer systems, their geometry, quantum of water resources and their quality in parts of Aligarh, Mathura, Hathras and Agra districts of Western Uttar Pradesh. The research area falling under the National Capital Region (NCR) is densely populated belt of the India. In addition to these, occurrence, movement and behaviour of the water level fluctuations in time and space are also studied by the systematic groundwater surveys of 45 observation wells in the study area. In the study area, the Yamuna river is highly polluted and receives a major share of pollutants from some of the biggest industrial estates all along the course in the Northwestern Uttar Pradesh. The worst polluted part of the Yamuna river lies between Mathura and Agra, where the water receives industrial wastes from tanneries, textile mills, chemical distilleries, sugar factories, thermal power houses and metal based industries. Besides, it is also receiving a large number of untreated urban and domestic wastes from the several drains of the study area. 1 Abstract Geomorphologically, the study area is classified mainly two broad geological units i.e., the Younger Alluvium, the Older Alluvium and some other geomorphic features are present in the form of flood plain, channel bar, point bar, water body and settlements. The study area is drained by the Yamuna river, Karwan river, Khari river, Agra canal and the Ganga canal. The study area having a gentle slope towards south and south-east where the elevation ranges between 83 to 115 m above mean sea level (amsl). A land use land cover map of the study area has been prepared with an idea to determine the area covered by various land use categories i.e., water bodies, barren land, forest, vegetation and settlement. Land use land cover map shows that vegetation is the dominant land use category which is followed by settlement and forest. Geologically, the study area is underlain by Quaternary alluvium, comprising clay, silt and sands of various grades intermixed with occasional beds of calc- concretion. This Quaternary alluvium unconformably overlies the Neogene Siwaliks, which in turn overlies the eroded and upturned surface of Meso-Proterozoic Vindhyans. Further down, the Upper Vindhyan overlies the Bundelkhand granite of Archean age which forms the basement. The soil of study area is much the same in composition and appearance as those of doab. It is observed that the topography has great influence on the soil of the study area. The study area falls in the sub-tropical semi-arid region and its climate experiences intense weather conditions characterised by a hot dry summer and pleasant cold winter. Winter season start in the end of October and continues till the end of February. December and January are the coldest months. The maximum temperature shoots up to 45oC during May. Strong westerly hot winds that is known as ‘Loo’ which blow throughout the day with dust storms occurring quite frequently. Rainy season commences in the middle of June and continuous till September. Monsoon rainfall breaks in second week of June and up to the end of September. More than 90% of the rainfall takes place during the months of July and August. The average annual rainfall of the study area is 487.2 mm. 2 Abstract Fence diagram has used to understand the subsurface lithology of the area. It gives a three dimensional view of the lithological variations. The fence diagram depicts the lateral and vertical disposition of aquifer system there occurs two to three tier aquifers system down to depth of 70 metre below ground level (mbgl). Aquifers seem to merge each other and developed a single bodied aquifer. The granular zone comprising 40-50% of total formation encountered at various depth. In the south-east the clay formation attains considerable thickness and predominance of clay and granular zones form 50% of litho units encountered.