Water quality analysis of River Yamuna using water quality index in the national capital territory, India (2000–2009)

Abstract

River Yamuna, in the national capital territory (NCT), commonly called Delhi (India), has been subjected to immense degradation and pollution due to the huge amount of domestic wastewater entering the river. Despite the persistent efforts in the form of the Yamuna Action Plan phase I and II (YAP) (since 1993 to date), the river quality in NCT has not improved. The restoration of river water quality has been a major challenge to the environmental managers. In the present paper, water quality index (WQI) was estimated for the River Yamuna within the NCT to study the aftereffects of the projects implemented during YAP I and II. The study was directed toward the use of WQI to describe the level of pollution in the river for a period of 10 years (2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009). The study also identifies the critical pollutants affecting the river water quality during its course through the city. The indices have been computed for pre-monsoon, monsoon and post-monsoon season at four locations, namely Palla, ODRB, Nizamuddin and Okhla in the river. It was found that the water quality ranged from good to marginal category at Palla and fell under poor category at all other locations. BOD, DO, total and fecal coliforms and free ammonia were found to be critical parameters for the stretch.

Development of river water quality indices—a review

“…In addition to the above-mentioned applications of CCME WQI in Canada, this index also has been adopted in several other countries. For example, it was employed in Turkey (Boyacioglu 2010), India (Sharma and Kansal 2011), Spain (Terrado et al 2010), Chile (Espejo et al 2012), Albania (Damo and Icka 2013) and Iran (Mostafaei 2014). …”

Assessment of surface water quality using hierarchical cluster analysis

“…This is much higher than the guideline value of maximum 500 mg/l for Class-A purpose suggested by the Bureau of Indian Standards (IS: 2296(IS: -1982. The high value of TDS produces aesthetically displeasing color, odor and taste to water and causes gastro intestinal irritation on consumption (Sharma and Kansal, 2011;Bhat et al, 2009;Soni and Thomas, 2013). …”

“…The presence of excess nitrate causes health hazards to humans. This will cause methaemoglobinemia (Blue baby disease) and it influences the growth of algae (House, 1999;Sharma and Kansal, 2011;Bhat, 2009). …”

Preliminary Assessment of Ground Water Quality using Water Quality Index near Landfill Site: A Case Study of Ghazipur, Delhi

“…Therefore, it is required to strictly monitor the quality of groundwater regularly and to find the ways to protect from further contamination. Water Quality Index (WQI) is the most effective tool to communicate the water quality information in a simpler way to the concern people and policy makers too (Sharma et al, 2011;Sebastian et al, 2013). Thus, WQI is calculated to know the suitability of groundwater for human consumption.…”