Research Article
Ashok Kumar Maurya, Aman Kumar
Abstract
Pesticides are found scattered in different environment factors (water, air, soil) wherefrom they are drawn off by vegetal and animal organisms. Water pollution by pesticides results from industry and also massive application of these resources in agriculture and other branches of economy. Pesticides can reach surface water along with dripping waters and by infiltration may reach the groundwater layers, organochlorine pesticides (OCP’s) are most often found in the water sources (HCH, DDT, Endosulfan, endrin, dieldrin, aldrin etc) due to their inceased persistence in external environment. Major 21 OCP's were monitored for 27 drinking water samples during three years. Pesticide concentrations were determined using GC-ECD, while GC-MS was used for confirmatory purposes. During the study period, 15% of the samples exceeded the total pesticide level of 0.50 µgL -1 indicated in the EECD directive for drinking water. Yearly variations of pesticide residues were also observed during the study period.