Physico-Chemical and Bacteriological Investigation on the River Cauvery of Kollegal Stretch in Karnataka

Abstract

Cauvery River is the major river system of south India was studied for 19 prime physicochemicaland 2 bacteriological parameters at six locations of the Kollegal stretch, for a periodof Two years (2006–2008) at monthly intervals. Over the years of time, river has beensubjected to human interference regularly and water quality was to be getting deterioratedprofoundly. Major anthropogenic activities practiced in and around the stretch: agriculture,abstraction of water for irrigation and drinking, washing cloths and utensils, discharging ofsewage waste, sand dredging, boating, fishing, open defecation and religious ritual activitiesalong the stretch were generating serious threat to the biota of the river by altering thephysicochemical and biological concentration of the river system. The seasonal and yearlytrends were discussed to comprehend anthropogenic interferences on the river stretch.Correlation analysis was also been tried in between physico-chemical parameters. The pH,Conductance, Alkalinity and Hardness levels indicate the moderate quality of water. Thevalues of DO, BOD and COD levels indicate the absence of major organic pollution sources.Seasonal and yearly averages of plant nutrients like phosphate, nitrates, potassium and alsosulphates at drain out falls and mixing zones, were not showing any significant variation intheir concentration indicate no sign of problems like eutrophication, which is generally raisedue to agricultural and sewage wastes. The other possibility is that since there are no majorindustries in the project area, the major source of organic pollutants is only the domesticsource. Population density spread over sparsely located villages like Dasanapura and Harlecertainly contributes towards total and fecal coliforms as excreta of the villagers due to lackof toilets in their houses. Thus present study concludes that river water was not polluted; allresults are within permissible limit when compared with Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS)and National River water quality standards.DOI: 10.3126/kuset.v6i1.3310Kathmandu University Journal of Science, Engineering and Technology Vol.6(1) 2010, pp50-59