Seasonal variability of water quality index in the Hooghly Estuary
441 / 12
Authors
-
Surajit K. Banik
-
V. R. Suresh
-
R. K. Manna
Abstract
Health of the Hooghly estuary was estimated through Water Quality Index (WQI) developed using ten water quality parameters, viz., specific conductivity, turbidity, pH, total dissolved solids, dissolved oxygen, biochemical oxygen demand, chloride, total alkalinity, total hardness, and nitrate-N measured at three different stations along the salinity gradient. Weighted arithmetic index method was used for calculation of WQI. For classifying water quality in each of the sampling stations, five-point rating scale was used. Wide fluctuations in monthly WQI were observed in this estuarine zone with the highest values during pre-monsoon month of May and the lowest values during monsoon month of October. From WQI values (mostly >100) throughout the year, it was evident that Hooghly-Bhagirathi estuarine system is unsuitable for drinking and propagation of wildlife and freshwater aqua culture as per water quality standards. It was also observed that there is a severe anthropogenic influence on most of the parameters. Major causes of deterioration in water quality were discharge of untreated industrial and municipal wastes, besides high level of other anthropogenic activities.
Key words WQI; Hooghly estuary; India
References
APHA 2005. Standard methods for the examination of water
and waste water, 21st Edn. American Public Health
Association, Washington D. C. 1195 p.
Basu, A. K., Ghosh, B. B., Pal, R. N. 1970. Comparison of the
Polluted Hooghly Estuary with the Unpolluted Matlah
Estuary, India. Journal (Water Pollution Control
Federation), 42(10): 1771-1781.
Bhaumik, Utpal, Srivastava, N. P., Satpathy, B. B.,
Mukhopadhyay, M. K. and Sharma, A. P. 2011. Impact
of hydro-ecology on fish migration in selected east coast
estuaries. Journal of the Inland Fisheries Society of
India, 43(1): 1-9.
Brown, R. M., McCleil and, N. J., Deininger, R. A., and O'Connor,
M. F. 1972. A water quality index - crossing the
psychological barrier. (Jenkis, S.H. ed.) Proc. Int. Conf.
on Water Poll. Res., Jerusalem 6: 787-797.
Chakraborty, N., Chakrabarti, P. K., Vinci, G. K. and Sugunan, V.
V. 1995. Spatiotemporal distribution pattern of certain
plankton of river Hooghly. Journal of the Inland
Fisheries Society of India, 27(1): 6-12.
Gaarder, T. and Gran, H. H. 1927. Investigations of the
Production of Phytoplankton in the Oslo Fjord.
Rapports et procès-verbaux des réunions/Conseil
international pour l'exploration de la mer, 42: 1-48.
Ghosh, A., 2008. Present status of fish diversity in a 12 km
stretch of the freshwater zone of the Hooghly Estuary.
Journal of the Inland Fisheries Society of India, 40
(Spl. 1): 60-66.
Ghosh, B. B., Bagchi, M. M. and De, D. K., 1983. Some
observations on the status of Hooghly estuary (West
Bengal) with reference to heavy metals deposited
through industrial wastes. Journal of the Inland
Fisheries Society of India, 15 (1 & 2): 44-53.
Horne, R. A. 1978. The Chemistry of our Environment. Wiley
Inter Science Pub. John Wiley and Sons, New York, pp.
-593.
Kabir, M. H., Tusher, T. R., Hossain, M. S., Islam, M. S., Shammi,
R. S., Kormoker, T., Proshad, R. and Islam, M. 2020.
Evaluation of spatio-temporal variations in water
quality and suitability of an ecologically critical urban
river employing water quality index and multivariate
statistical approaches: A study on Shitalakhya river,
Bangladesh. Human and Ecological Risk Assessment:
An International Journal, 27: 1388-1415.
DOI:10.1080/10807039.2020.1848415.
Kennish, M. J. 2017. Estuaries: Anthropogenic Impacts. In:
Finkl C. and Makowski C. (eds) Encyclopaedia of Coastal
Science. Encyclopaedia of Earth Sciences Series.
Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-
-4_140-2.
Kudeshi, V. P. 1980. Water pollution. Pragati Prakashan, Meerut
(India), pp. 249-260.
Lal, B., 1990. Impact of Farakka barrage on the hydrological
changes and productivity potential of Hooghly
Estuary. Journal of the Inland Fisheries Society of
India, 22(1 and 2): 38-42.
Manna, R. K., Roshith, C. M., Das, S. K., Suresh, V. R. and
Sharma, A. P. 2014. Salinity regime and fish species
distribution in the Hooghly-Matlah estuary. pp. 232-
In: Sinha, R. K. and Ahmed, B. (eds.) (2014).
Rivers for Life - Proceedings of the International
Symposium on River Biodiversity: GangesBrahmaputra-Meghna River System, Ecosystems for
Life, A Bangladesh-India Initiative, IUCN, International
Union for Conservation of Nature, 340 p.
Manna, R. K., Satpathy, B. B., Roshith, C. M., Naskar, M.,
Bhaumik, Utpal and Sharma, A. P. 2013. Spatio-temporal changes of hydro-chemical parameters in the
estuarine part of the river Ganges under altered
hydrological regime and its impact on biotic
communities. Aquatic Ecosystem Health &
Management, 16(4): 33-444.
Mateus, M., Mateus, S. and Baretta, J. W. 2008. Basic concepts
of estuarine ecology. In: J. W. Baretta, M. Mateus. and
R. Neves(Eds.) Perspectives on Integrated Coastal Zone
Management in South America. IST Press, pp. 3-14.
Mishra, P. C. and Patel, R. K. 2001. Quality of drinking water in
Rourkela, outside the steel township. Journal of
Environment and Pollution, 8(2): 165-169.
Mukhopadhyay, M. K. and Saigal, B. N. 1986. Distribution of
Coscinodiscus granii and its possible use as bioindicator
for demarcating salinity regime in the Hooghly
Estuary. Journal of the Inland Fisheries Society of
India, 18(1): 24-28
Nath, D. and De, D. K. 1996. Changes in the environmental
feature at the Hooghly Estuary in relation to bore tide.
Journal of the Inland Fisheries Society of India, 28(2):
-90.
Nath, D. and De, D. K. 1998. Preliminary studies on the changes
in the physico-chemical characteristics of Hooghly
Estuary in relation to tides. Journal of the Inland
Fisheries Society of India, 30(2): 29- 36.
Nath, D., 1998. Zonal distribution of nutrients and their
bearing on primary production in Hooghly Estuary.
Journal of the Inland Fisheries Society of India, 30(2):
-74.
Panigrahi, A. K. and Pattnaik, S. 2019. A review on pollution
status of river Bhagirathi-Hooghly in the stretch of
West Bengal, India. Indian Journal of Applied Research,
(8): 53-57.
Roshith, C. M., Meena, D. K., Manna, R. K., Sahoo, A. K.,
Swain, H. S., Raman, R. K., et al. 2018. Phytoplankton
community structure of the Gangetic (Hooghly-Matla)
estuary: status and ecological implications in relation
to eco-climatic variability. Flora 240: 133-143.
Roshith, C. M., Sharma, A. P., Manna, R. K., Satpathy, B. B.
and Bhaumik, U. 2013. Ichthyofaunal diversity, assemblage structure and seasonal dynamics in the freshwater
tidal stretch of Hooghly estuary along the Gangetic
delta. Aquatic Ecosystem Health & Management, 16(4):
-453.
Samanta, S., Mitra, K., Chandra, K., Saha, K., Bandopadhyay, S.
and Ghosh, A. 2005. Heavy metals in water of the
rivers Hooghly and Haldi at Haldia and their impact on
fish. Journal of Environmental Biology, 26(3):
-523.
Downloads
Submitted
Published
Issue
Section
License
In case of publication of the article in the journal, author(s) are required to assign copyright to the Journal of the Inland Fisheries Society of India for its publication in any form/language including all media (print and electronic, or presently unknown), and exclusive right to use the matter for the life of the work (no time restriction on re use of matter).