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Assessment of Water Quality in River Yamuna during Idol immersion

Rajeev Kumar M

Water Pollution, a major concern in India has been thriving since the past few decades. The introduction of contaminating and hazardous pollutants into the natural water leads to adverse changes leading to unavailability of fresh water for drinking and daily use. The river Yamuna, a sacred river originating from Yamunotri in the Himalayas and is a life-line of Delhi. Yamuna, the most polluted river in the country and the causative factors contributing to pollution of the Yamuna are untreated sewage, industrial effluents, pollution due to in stream uses of water, dumping of garbage and dead bodies and immersion of idols. During festive season, immersion of idols has become a cause for concern because of the use of chrome based paints and cheap lead while making the idols. Along with the idols, puja articles such as flowers, food offerings, metal polish, plastic sheets, cosmetic items, polythene bags are also submerged into the water. This on degradation decreases the dissolved oxygen concentration in the river causing the death of the organisms living in the water body. To analyse the water quality following parameters are to be checked for: Dissolved oxygen, Biological oxygen Demand, Chemical oxygen Demand, Total Solids, and pH.