Impact of urbanisation on the quality of ground water in the Ramnadi basin, Pune

Abstract

Water is an essential and valuable natural resource for entire living community. Hence its quality and quantity are of prime importance. The importance of quality and quantity of natural resources of water, that is ground water and surface water is significantly increasing since last two decades in India. This is because of uncertainties of water resources and challenges of quality of surface water as well as ground water due to reckless human activities under the name of development. Increasing population growth, urbanisation and industrial development, excess use of fertilizers, etc., has added to the degradation of the natural resources of water. Ground water which acts as reservoir changes qualitatively due to the pollution and indiscriminate disposal of industrial waste, human and agricultural water. This has created a threat not only to the quality of ground as well as surface water resources in the many regions, to the hydrological ecosystem as a whole. In view of this, the paper evaluates the impact of urbanisation on the quality of the water resources around the Ramnadi basin. © 2006 - Kalpana Corporation