EFFECTS OF POLLUTION IN RIVER KRISHNI ON HAND PUMP WATER QUALITY

Abstract

Water quality is an important issue. River Krishni is a tributary of River Hindon. It flows through three districts of Western Uttar Pradesh and plays a prominent role in their economy. At present, river is highly polluted as it receives considerable amounts of industrial effluents from industries such as sugar, distillery, card-board, agriculture, food-products etc. River water has resulted in the overall decay of atmosphere (bad smell in the village environment), hydrosphere (surface and ground water both) and lithosphere in the villages situated along the river. The objective of the investigation was "to study the effect of pollution in River Krishni on the quality of groundwater abstracted through shallow and deep hand pumps placed in the close vicinity of River Krishni". One such affected village situated along the River Krishni, Chanedna Maal, District Muzaffar Nagar, Uttar Pradesh was selected for the study. Water samples were analysed in terms of physical, chemical and bacteriological water quality parameters. Values of different parameters were compared with the standards for drinking water quality prescribed by WHO and BIS. Samples were collected in three stages. Initially a preliminary study was carried out in Sept., 2008. In the second phase samples were collected from Nov., 2008 to Feb., 2009 when river carried water, mainly due to discharges from seasonal industries. Studies of the third stage in May, 2009 were carried at the time of no flow in the river. Hand pumps abstracting water from shallow and deep unconfined aquifers have been found to deliver polluted water in terms of color, organics and coliform bacteria. It was found that most of the water quality parameters like colour, BOD, COD, TOC, UV-absorbance, turbidity, TDS and coliforms exceed even the maximum permissible values for drinking purpose. All the hand pump water samples irrespective of the depth of hand pumps were found to be coloured having substantial amount or traces of organics. Water from deeper hand pumps have been found better in quality compared to that from shallow hand pumps. However, water even abstracted from a depth of about 50 m using India Mark 2 hand pump cannot be classified as potable. As the hand pumps are the only source of water supply in Village Chandena Maal, pollution of the groundwater has adversely affected the day to day life of its 3000 residents..