Abstract:
Water samples were collected in April 2005 (initial days of summer) and May 2005 (peak summer) from dug wells and bore wells of tsunami-affected coastal Andhra Pradesh. These were characterized for various physical and chemical parameters. The affected areas were ranked after considering certain attributes, based on which three locations (C.V. Lanka, P.V. Lanka and Vemuladevi) were found to be more affected. These three locations showed higher values of conductivity, hardness, alkalinity, etc. besides sulphate and chloride as compared to the reference samples selected in the study. Dug wells contained higher values of heavy metals like Mn, Zn, Cu, Ni and Cd, etc. indicating intrusion of saline water into the surface water.