Assessment of water quality of River Ganga at Haridwar with reference to Water Quality Index

The holy River Ganga at Haridwar is largely affected by that effluent from varius industries and untreated sewage disposed from insufficient sewage treatment plants. Along with that the pilgrims that take holy dip in the pious river throughout the year, all these sitautions worsens the condition a lot. The quality and quantity of surface water in a river basin is influenced by natural factors such as rainfall, temperature and weathering of rocks and anthropogenic changes that curtail natural flow of the river, or alter its hydrochemistry. A study related to water quality indexing of River Ganga was conducted for four months, and four sampling stations were selected for physico-chemical parameters. WQI of the River during the study period was 46.03 which fall in the good water quality. DO values ranged from 10.32 – 13.24 mg/l, BOD values were 1.08 – 3.66 mg/L, COD ranged from 5.50 – 11.50 mg/L. Other physico-chemical parameters were observed well in the range.