Development of a water quality index (WQI) for the Loktak Lake in India
Development of a water quality index (WQI) for the Loktak Lake in India
Rajiv Das Kangabam 0 1
Sarojini Devi Bhoominathan 0 1
Suganthi Kanagaraj 0 1
Munisamy Govindaraju 0 1
0 Present Address: Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Assam Agricultural University , Jorhat, Assam 785013 , India
1 & Rajiv Das Kangabam
The present work was carried out to assess a water quality index (WQI) of the Loktak Lake, an important wetland which has been under pressure due to the increasing anthropogenic activities. Physicochemical parameters like temperature (Tem), potential hydrogen (pH), electrical conductivity (EC), turbidity (T), dissolved oxygen (DO), total hardness (TH), calcium (Ca), chloride (Cl), fluoride (F), sulphate (SO24 ), magnesium (Mg), phosphate (PO34 ), sodium (Na), potassium (K), nitrite (NO2), nitrate (NO3), total dissolved solids (TDS), total carbon (TC), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), and chemical oxygen demand (COD) were analyzed using standard procedures. The values obtained were compared with the guidelines for drinking purpose suggested by the World Health Organization and Bureau of Indian Standard. The result shows the higher concentration of nitrite in all the location which is beyond the permissible limit. Eleven parameters were selected to derive the WQI for the estimation of water potential for five sampling sites. A relative weight was assigned to each parameter range from 1.46 to 4.09 based on its importance. The WQI values range from 64 to 77 indicating that the Loktak Lake water is not fit for drinking, including both human and animals, even though the people living inside the Lake are using it for drinking purposes. The implementation of WQI is necessary for proper management of the Loktak Lake and it will be a
Physicochemical parameters; Water quality index; Pearson's correlation matrix; Floating island; Loktak Lake
-
Department of Environmental Biotechnology, School of
Environmental Sciences, Bharathidasan University,
Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu 620024, India
very helpful tool for the public and decision makers to
evaluate the water quality of the Loktak Lake for
sustainable management.
Introduction
Water quality is an important contributor touching on all
aspects of ecosystems and human well-being and a
significant tool in determining the human poverty, wealth, and
education levels
(UN Water 2010)
. The ecosystem services
of water from rivers and lakes are directly or indirectly
contribute to both human welfare and aquatic ecosystem
(Costanza et al. 1997; Kar 2007, 2013)
. The increase in
pollution of water sources like lakes and rivers is a major
concern for the global scenario as most of the water bodies
around the world are the source for water supply including
human consumption and domestic purposes
(Kazi et al.
2009; Dey and Kar 1987)
. The health of the aquatic
ecosystem is determined by the water quality parameter
which includes the physical, chemical, and biological
characteristics
(Kar 1990; Sargaonkar and Deshpande
2003; Venkatesharaju et al. 2010)
. Therefore, a particular
problem with water quality monitoring is a complex issue
associated with analyzing a large number of associate
measures of variables (Boyacioglu 2007) and the high
variability among the variables is due to increase in
anthropogenic activities including natural influences
(Simeonov et al. 2002)
. The anthropogenic discharges
constitute a constant polluting source, thereby reducing the
water quality. Human activities are the major factor
determining the quality of water
(Niemi et al. 1990; Kar
2010)
. Environmental pollution of water resources has
become a major global issue, including developing
countries which have been suffering from the impact of
pollution due to poor socio economic growth associated with the
exploitation of natural resources. As a result of it, water is
considered as the highest risk to the world for future due to
increase in demand as well as increase in pollution
(Kar
2013; Global Risks 2015)
.
Many methods have been proposed and adopted for
analysis of water quality. One of the most effective
approaches for studying water quality is using of
suitable indices
(APHA 2005; Dwivedi and Pathak 2007)
.
Indices are measure of changes in a representative group of
individual data points of various physicochemical and
biological parameters in a given sample. The advantage of
indices is that it has the potential to inform the general
public and decision makers about the status of the
ecosystem
(Nasirian 2007; Simoes et al. 2008)
. The benefit
of this approach is the provision to evaluate the success and
failure of any management plan for improving the water
quality
(Rickwood and Carr 2009)
.
A number of studies have reported the importance of
water quality indices (WQI) which serve as an indicator for
assessment of water quality as proposed for the first time
by
Horton (1965)
. Later, numerous researchers have
carried out studies on water quality assessmen (...truncated)