WATER QUALITY OF RIVER GANGA ALONG THE WEST BENGAL STRETCH
194 / 0
Authors
-
S. K. MANDAL
-
S. KOLE
-
D. SENGUPTA
-
S. SEN
-
R. K. KOLE
Abstract
Water quality of the river Ganga in West Bengal was assessed at 4 locations viz. Berhampore, Palta, Dakshineswar and Uluberia. Most of the physico-chemical parameters including metals were within BIS permissible limits for drinking. But the residues of some pesticides exceeded the EU permissible level for drinking. Significant spatial and temporal variation in the water quality was noted indicating higher pollution load during the monsoon and also along the downstream of the river. The low ionic concentration in water was well within the standard values with their dominance in the order: Ca2+ > Mg2+ > Na+ and SO4 2-> Cl- > NO3 - > F- . The river water appeared to be of medium salinity class for irrigation and was suitable for fisheries and aquaculture. However, pesticide residues like DDT may require special attention.
Key words: Ganga, physico-chemical properties, metal, pesticide, permissible limit.
References
APHA (American Public Health Association), 1995. Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Waste Waters, 19th Edition, Washington, DC.
Barrett, P. H. 1953. Relationship between alkalinity and absorption and regeneration of added phosphorus in fertilized trout lakes. Trans Am. Fish. Soc., 82 : 78-90.
Begum, A., Harikrishna, M. R., Khan, I. and Veena, K. 2009. Heavy metal pollution and chemical profile of Cauvery river water. E-Journal of Chemistry, 6 (1) : 47-52.
BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards), 1991. Indian standard specification for drinking water, IS 10500, 2 : 2-4.
Chapman, D. 1996. Water Quality Assessment, 2nd edn. EPFN Spon, London.
Duran, M. and Suicmez, M. 2007. Utilization of both benthic macroinvertebrates and physicochemical parameters for evaluating water quality of the stream Cekerek (Tokat, Turkey). J. Environ. Biol., 28 : 231-236.
Durfer, C. M. and Backer, E. 1964. Public water supplies of the three largest cities in the U. S. US Geological Survey water supply, paper no. 1812, 364.
DWAF (Department of Water Affairs of Forestry), 1998. Quality of Domestic Water Supplies. Assessment Guide, 2nd edn., Department of Health and Water Research Commission, Pretoria, South Africa.
EPA, 1997. Profile of the Fossil Fuel Electric Power Generation Industry. (Report). Document No. EU (European Union), 1998, Lenntech Water treatment & air purification Holding B. V., Rotterdamseweg 402 M, 2629 HH Delft, The Netherlands.
FAO, 1994. Water quality for agriculture. Water quality guidelines, Food & Agricultural Organization, Rome.
Gholami, S. and Srikantaswami, S. 2009. Analysis of agricultural impact on the Cauvery river water around KRS dam. World Applied Science Journal, 6 (8):1157 - 1169.
ISI (Indian Standards Institution), 1974. Indian standard tolerance limits for surface waters subject to pollution, IS: 2296. New Delhi: ISI.
Jerald, I. J. A. 1994. Studies on the Limno-Ichthyology of lower Anicut reservoir, Tamil Nadu, South India and some aspects of biology of minor carp Puntius sarana (Hamilton). Ph. D. thesis, Bharathidasan University.
Khan, Y. S. A., Hussain, S. M. G. and Hallimuzzaman, A. H. M. 1998. An environmental assessment of trace metals in Ganges - Brahamputra - Meghna estuary. J. Rem. Sens. Environ., 2 : 103 - 117.
MacCutcheon, S. C., Martin, J. L. and Barnwell, Jr T. O. 1983. Handbook of Hydrology. Mc Graw-Hill Inc., New York.
Marian, E. 1991. Metals and their Compounds in the Environment: Occurrence, Analysis and Biological Relevance. UCH, Weinheim-New York-Basel-Cambridge
Meitei, N. S., Bhargava, V. and Patil, P. M. 2004. Water quality of Purna river in Purna town, Maharastra state. J. Aqua. Biol., 19: 77-78.
O’Neil, P. 1993. Environmental Chemistry. Chapman and Hall, London. 193 pp.
Pahwa, D. V. and Mehrotra, S. N. 1966. Observations on fluctuation in the abundance of plankton in relation to certain hydrobiological conditions of river Ganges. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., India, 36B (2) : 157-89.
Pandey, J, Subhashish, K. and Pandey, R. 2010. Heavy metal contamination of Ganga water at Varanasi in relation to atmospheric deposition. Tropical Ecology, 51 (2S) : 365 - 373.
Pandey, N. C. 1985. Pollution of river Ganga in U. P. with specific reference to Varanasi. Civic affairs, 32 : 52-59.
Prater, B. E. 1975. The Metal content and characteristic of steel work effluents discharging to the Tees Estuary. Wat. Pollut. Control, 74 : 63-78.
Sahu, B. K., Rao, R. J., Behara, S. K. and Pandit, R. K. 2000. Effect of pollutants on the dissolved oxygen concentration of the river Ganga at Kanpur, pp. 168-170. In Trivedy, R.K. (ed), Pollution and biomonitoring of Indian rivers. ABD Publication, Jaipur, India.
Saksena, D. N. and Kaushik, S. 1994. Trophic status and habitat ecology of entomofauna of three water bodies at Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh. In Agrawal, O. P. (ed), Perspective in entomological research. Scientific Publishers, Jodhpur.
Saksena, D. N., Garg, R. K. and Rao, R. J. 2008. Water quality and pollution status of Chambal river in National Chambal sanctuary, Madhya Pradesh. J. Environ. Biol., 29 (5) : 701- 710.
Sharma, R. K., Agrawal, M. and Marshall, F. 2008. Atmospheric deposition of heavy metals (Cd, Pb, Zn and Cu) in Varanasi city, India. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 142 : 269 - 263.
Singh, H. P., Mahaver, L. R. and Mishra, J. P. 1999. Limnochemical characteristics of river Ghaghara in U.P. J. Inland Fish. Soc. India, 31 : 28-32.
Singh, P. B. and Singh, V. 2008. Pesticide bioaccumulation and plasma sex steroids in fishes during breeding phase from north India.
Environmental Toxicology and Pharmacology, 25 : 342-350.
Shrivastava, V. S. and Patil, P. R., (2002): Tapti river water pollution by industrial wastes: A statistical approach. Nat. Environ. Pollut. Tech., 1 : 279-283.
Umamaheswari, S. and Anbu saravanan, N. 2009. Water quality of Cauvery river basin in Trichirappalli, India. International Journal of Lakes and Rivers, 2 (1) : 1 -20.
USEPA (US Environmental Protection Agency), 1995. Guidance for assessing chemical contaminant data for use in fish advisories, vol. I. Fish sampling and analysis, 2nd edn., USEPA, EPA 823-R-97-006.
Verma, A. K. and Saksena, D. N. 2010. Assessment of water quality and pollution status of Kalpi (Morar) river, Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh: with special reference to conservation and management plan. Asian J. Exp. Biol. Sci., 1 (2) : 419 -429.
WHO (World Health Organisation), 1993. Guidelines for Drinking Water Quality. Geneva, Switzerland.
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).