Review of the pollution threat to groundwater in Sri Lanka.

Abstract

Groundwater is an Important source of potable water in Sri Lanka. However. little attention has been given to the pollution risk to the supplies despite the increasing threat posed by both modern intensive agriculture and the disposal to ground of industrial and domestic wastes. This paper attempts to review the vulnerability to pollution of the coastal sand, limestone and crystalline basement aquifers of Sri Lanka and the activities likely to generate contaminant .Monitoring of groundwater quality has shown that some aquifers in Sri Lanka are already contaminated by agrochemicals leached from intensively cultivated soils and by domestic wastes discharged via pit-latrine soakaways.