RIVER HINDON AND TRIBUTARIES ASSESSMENT OF WATER QUALITY

Abstract

Due to its strategic geological location river Hindon plays a prominent role in western Uttar Pradesh. The river during its traverse receives domestic and industrial wastes alongwith agricultural runoff. The river Hindon ultimately joins river Yamuna downstream of Delhi and thus empties its pollution load into Yamuna, which in turn confluences with Ganga at Allahabad. Hence, without improvement in the quality of Hindon river the on going clean up of Yamuna river and subsequently the Ganga river would not produce commensurate results. Pollutional aspects of river Hindon and its tributaries were studied by determining various pollutional parameters. Five sampling stations on the main river and one each on the tributaries/wastewater drains were selected for sampling. Four sets of samples were collected over a period of four months from Nov:'96 to Feb.'97. To evaluate and compare pollutional level of river, Water Quality Indices (WQI) have come in practice. In this study one general purpose index i.e. NSF WQI and one specific use index i.e. Bathing water index (BWI) were used to express river water quality. A wider range of temporal variations in the quality parameters can be attributed to the changes in the quantity of Ganga Canal water released into the River Hindon. Total coliform (MPN) values indicated that river water was not safe for primary contacts. NSF WQI indicated that the river water was BAD at BA, MH and MN and MEDIUM at DH and NO. BWI indicated that river water is not safe for bathing purposes.