Assessment of water quality of river Beas, Punjab
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Date
2020
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Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana
Abstract
A systematic study was carried out assess temporal and spatial variation of physico-chemical
parameters and heavy metals in Beas river water. Sixty water samples were collected from
five different locations (Mukaian, Bhet, Tanda, Dhilwan and Goindwal) in four different
sesaons (pre-monsoon, monsoon, post-monsoon and winter). The water quality assessment is
made by estimating pH, electrical conductivity (EC), major ions (Ca2+, Mg2+, K+, Na+, Cl-,
HCO3-), biological oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD). Water
quality index (WQI), heavy metal pollution index (HPI), hazard quotient (HQ), hazard index
(HI) and cancer risk (CR), was estimated to assess river water pollution. The water quality
parameters like pH, EC, Ca2+, Mg2+,K+, Na+, Cl-, HCO3- and COD were within acceptable
limits except BOD in some of the samples as per Bureau of Indian standards (2012). All the
heavy metals (HM) were also within acceptable limits except arsenic in 10% of samples postmonsoon
season. On the basis of physico-chemical parameters such as pH, EC, Ca2+,
Mg2+,K+, Na+, Cl-, HCO3- , BOD, COD and heavy metals, river water quality was found fit for
drinking purpose after filtration and chlorination. Irrigation water quality parameters such as
RSC, SAR, %Na, MR and KAR was found in excellent class. Water quality index (WQI) falls
under the medium class (0.50-0.70) where as heavy metal pollution index (HPI) falls under
excellent (Ni>Cd>Cr indicating least cancer risk due to
HM. The study revealed that children were more sensitive (0.455) than adults (0.437) to CR.
Since some of the heavy metals exceed the critical limits, therefore long term monitoring is
required to assess the water quality of Beas River for its use in agricultural and drinking
purpose.
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Citation
Kundel, Aman (2020). Assessment of water quality of river Beas, Punjab bengalensis (Unpublished M.Sc. thesis). Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab, India.