Examining the extent of seawater intrusion from groundwater quality analysis at Purba Medinipur coast of India

Water is mostly used for drinking water supply, irrigation water, and industrial supply. Purba Medinipur coast has been chosen as the study area which has small number of rivers and limited other surface water sources. Due to increasing population, industrialisation and irrigation groundwater is practised regularly instead. It is evident that if groundwater levels decline then seawater will intrude into fresh aquifer. To examine such condition, fourteen sampling locations have been chosen from coastal Purba Medinipur. Water quality parameters like pH, chloride, sodium chloride, magnesium chloride, magnesium carbonate, total dissolved solids, iron and total hardness are monitored for these selected locations. These water quality parameters are compared with international standards being used for specification of drinking water and is used for water quality reference for food industry. Central Pollution Control Board guidelines for water quality management for irrigation are considered as a reference for chemical analysis also.