Original Articles
Bahukhandi Kanchan Deoli, Sate
Abstract
The Physicochemical analysis of Ganga river has been carried out at Gangotri (the origin point) to Ganga river at Haridwar district. Water samples have been collected from upstream, midstream and downstream of Ganga river of Uttarakhand. Ionic balance was calculated, the error in the ionic balance for majority of the samples were within 5%. The abundance of various ions in the sample was in order of HCO3(63.8 mg/l)> Ca (19.2 mg/l) > Mg (5.9 mg/l) Na (3.05 mg/l) > Cl (1.6 mg/l) > K (0.5 mg/l). The pH value were ranged from 6.2 to 7.5 with a mean value of 6.5. The EC were ranged from 89 μs/cm to 485 μs/cm with a mean value of 166.2 μs/cm. The physicochemical parameter of water quality were compared with Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS 2012) and found that all the parameter were under permissible limit of standards (BIS 10500). (Ca+Mg) - (Na+K) values were plotted against HCO3-(Cl+SO4) to characterize the water samples. In most of the samples, the water is Ca-Mg-HCO3 type. The water samples from Gangotri to Loharingapala were of Ca-Mg-Cl-SO4 type. Hot Spot Matrix have also been calculated for identifying the location of severe water quality deterioration site where immediate control measures are needed to restore and to preserve the water quality. As per trilinear diagram of (Ca+ Mg), Na and K most of the samples falls towards the apex of (Ca + Mg) while in trilinear of HCO3 , Cl and NO3 all the samples falls towards the apex of HCO3 indicating dominance of carbonate weathering in ganga river.