Abstract

Comparison of the water quality parameters with a large dataset of rivers across India.

Author(s): Shravya Shetty

Aims: To compare the different water quality parameters for 14 rivers, which are Temperature, pH, Dissolved Oxygen (DO), Conductivity, nitrate, Biological Oxygen demand (BOD), fecal and total coliform. Study design: Online mode using Datasets from Excel and ECL. Place and Duration of Study: Jozbiz Technologies Pvt. Ltd. in online mode. between August 2021 and September 2021. Methodology: We included 14 rivers (10 main, 4 tributaries). The plots of each of the parameters are constructed using Microsoft Excel and the plots of 2007 and 2019 are compared against each other to analyze the extent of contamination, identify possible reasons and how conservation programmes help in rejuvenation of rivers. Also, a software called ECL was used to obtain the list of the polluted rivers based on the permissible limits for each parameter. Results: On comparison of parameters of various rivers in India, Hindon river which is a tributary of the Yamuna River is seen to be highly polluted. The BOD and DO values for the Hindon river in the year 2007 were 46 and 0.75 respectively and in the year 2019, the values were 52 and 0.2 respectively, which shows that over the years the pollution has increased. Conclusion: The discharge from various industries was one of the major factors for the pollution of the river. The degradation of water quality freshwater is a major environmental concern. Constant monitoring of the waterbodies is an important requirement to check its safety for regular use.