The Jaffna Peninsula, falls within the dry zone in Sri Lanka, is underlain by Miocene limestone that is considered to have appropriate aquifer properties for groundwater storage and discharge. The absence of perennial rivers or major water supply schemes to the Peninsula highlights the importance of groundwater as the predominant water resource for domestic, industrial and agricultural use. The Jaffna Peninsula has four main aquifer systems, namely Chunnakam (Valikamam area), Thenmaratchi, Vadamaratchi and Kayts, of which the Valikamam area is intensively cultivated in the Jaffna Peninsula. Chunnakam aquifer in Valikamam area is the main limestone aquifer of Jaffna Peninsula.
Objectives
Intensive irrigation, higher inorganic fertilizer usage and a comparatively dense population may result in over-extraction of groundwater resources and a deterioration of the water quality over time. The objective of this study was to characterize the chemical quality of the Chunnakam aquifer, map the spatial distribution of water quality and making the information easily accessible to future research studies and water/land-use managers. Spatial distribution maps for different parameters were developed using the Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) interpolation technique with ArcGIS 10.1. Groundwater samples were collected from forty four wells to represent different uses such as domestic, domestic with home garden, public wells, farm wells and different cropping systems such as paddy, banana and high land crops. The data used in this study covers the period from January to December 2011 to represent various climatic regimes within a year.
Data
Spatial and temporal distribution maps of various water quality parameters that have been produced based on a systematic study is the first of its kind in the Jaffna Peninsula.
