WATER QUALITY ASSESSMENT OF DAL LAKE, KASHMIR

Abstract

Dal Lake is the center of Kashmir's lucrative tourism industry, supports a population of some 7000 people (Who live in permanently anchored house boats), a huge floating market-garden industry, and an important fishery. The spurt in agricultural activity, reduction in plant cover on the hillsides, and the consequential increase in surface erosion have, over the years, drastically accelerated siltation rates. Human settlements within and around the border of the lake have resulted in the addition of nutrient-rich sewage, causing eutrophication. These activities have resulted in a drastic fall in water quality; the the Dal's water, once described as "Clear and soft as silk", is today dark and turbid. The severe eutrophication and siltation threaten to wipe out the lake totally within near future. In the past, more attention has been paid to limnological studies. The present study aimed at hydrological investigations to work out the water budget and stratification of the lake. The lake shows differential pollution status and, therefore, variability of important physico-chemical parameters was studied in the present study. Since the lake has added an important dimension to its utility by serving as a source of public water supply, quality of water was assessed through comparison between main basins and computing violation of permissible values of concentration for various water quality constituents. Finally, the concerning issue of siltation was dealt with by successfully predicting suspended solids concentration employing remote sensing technique.