Water Quality Assessment of Shitalakhya River

Abstract

Water quality is the key of environmental concern because of its important provision of water for drinking and domestic purpose, irrigation and aquatic life including fish and fisheries. The present study was conducted to assess the surface water quality of the Shitalakhya River from January, 2017 to December, 2018. Temperature, pH, EC, TDS, TSS, BOD5, Alkalinity, Total Hardness, Calcium Hardness, Magnesium Hardness, Chloride, Dissolved Silica, Total Iron concentration and Turbidity in water samples have been found in the ranges 24 - 33°C, 6.5 - 7.6, 108 - 478 µS/cm, 54 - 245 ppm, 8 - 118 mg/l, 6 - 12 mg/l, 36.6 - 231.8 mg/l, 30 - 190 mg/l, 20 - 120 mg/l, 10 - 80 mg/l, 3.54 - 9.91 mg/l, 16 - 51 mg/l, 0.10 - 1.5 mg/l, 2.09 - 120 NTU in the year 2017 and 21 - 32.5°C, 6.7 - 7.3, 101 - 424 µS/cm, 55 - 212 ppm,  10 - 154 mg/l, 7 - 16 mg/l, 42.7 - 219.6 mg/l,  35 - 180 mg/l, 25 - 115 mg/l, 10 - 70 mg/l, 4.96 - 16.99 mg/l, 19 - 84 mg/l, 0.10 - 2.50 mg/l, 2.73 - 214 NTU in the year 2018 respectively. Obtained results of the present study area shows that most of the parameters were within the permissible limit except Turbidity, Total Suspended Solid (TSS), Dissolved Silica (SiO2) and Biological Oxygen Demand for five days (BOD5). Use of river water can pose serious problems to human health and aquatic ecosystem via biological food chain. The present research suggests special preference for better management of the river water to protect the health of aquatic ecosystem of the river.