A Case Study of Water Quality Index of the Bellary Nala, Belgaum, Karnataka, India

Abstract

Streams which are in many areas serving the basic needs of water, plays a significant role in shaping the environmental and ecological balance of the region through which it flows. Despite of all these versatile contributory roles, knowingly or unknowingly are being used as a dumping site for disposal of municipal and industrial waste waters with intention that streams will take care of these wastes. The main goal of this study was to characterize the combined industrial and municipal wastewater of Bellary Nala in terms of physico-chemical parameters. For this purpose, 10 sampling stations were selected. Parameters analyzed onsite included temperature, pH, turbidity, DO, BOD. Etc. All the collected samples were analyzed as per methods listed in the Standard Methods (APHA, 2005). The Bellary Nala was found significantly contaminated with pollutants and their concentrations were significantly higher as compared to General standards for discharge of Environmental Pollutants: Effluents. The study related to the assessment of water quality parameters of Bellary Nala was carried out to evaluate the various water quality parameters and to calculate water quality index.

Keywords: Bellary Nala, physicochemical parameters, pollution, water quality index.