Temporal and spatial analysis of water quality parameters of upper Ganga basin

Abstract

The availability of water resources for ensuring the life and health of both individuals and ecosystems depends in large part on rivers. As a result, maintaining and managing river water quality is a crucial factor. The presence of impurities and the characteristics of water indicates the quality of water. The quality of water is affected by industrial, agricultural and urban wastes. Polluted water is not good for human health and agricultural purposes. It causes many diseases and reduces the productivity of crops. Different quality of water is required for agriculture, household and drinking purpose. Various water quality parameters data like Dissolved Oxygen (DO), pH, Electrical Conductivity (EC), Temperature, Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) and Total Hardness, were collected (from 1985 to 2020) and analysed to find the trend in upper Ganga basin using Mann-Kendal test. Primary data of five stations i.e., Uttarkashi, Bareilly, Kanpur, Prayagraj and Varanasi were used for this study. Among the parameters studied hardness and TDS represent the positive trend and DO represent the negative trend, which indicate that the quality of water deteriorates. It was observed that poverty of water quality condition in various areas, represented by trend analysis, which is affected by higher variations in the magnitude.