P. J. Puri, M.K.N. Yenkie, D.B. Rana and S.U. Meshram
The present work aims at assessing the water quality index (WQI) in the surface water (Ambazari lake) situated in Nagpur city, Maharashtra India, by monitoring five sampling locations within Ambazari lake (viz., inlet1, inlet2, centre, corner and outlet) for a period of 3 months from August to October-2013. For calculating the WQI, 14 parameters, namely, pH, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids, total hardness, alkalinity, calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, chloride, sulphate, nitrate, fluorides and iron were considered. It is apparent from WQI values that Ambazari Lake water with WQI values ranging from 42.28 to 49.84(pre-immersion period), 58.57 to 109.66(immersion period) and 55.19 to 62.74 (post-immersion period falls under simply good to poor water category. It was observed that the values of physicochemical parameters significantly increased during the immersion period and then declined in the post-immersion period, however the general trend observed was: immersion > post-immersion > pre-immersion values. The present study revealed that Ambazari lake water is polluted (due to surface run-off, bathing activities, agriculture run-off, effluents from upstream from surrounding industrial and garden area, immersion of idols of God and Goddess during festival season), and is unsuitable for human consumption, industrial purpose also for the survival of life forms unless treated properly.
