Study of Spatio-temporal Variation in Water Quality Between Two Reservoirs on River Damodar, West Bengal, India

IJEP 46(4): 370-380 : Vol. 46 Issue. 4 (April 2026)

Full Text

Sanghamitra Sanyal, Sudipta Seth, Aloke Kumar Mukherjee, Sanchari Sarkar and Moitreyee Chakrabarty*

Kazi Nazrul University, Department of Conservation Biology, Durgapur Government College, Durgapur – 713 214, West Bengal, India

Abstract

River water quality differs from that of water dammed in a reservoir. We determined the spatial (sites=10) and seasonal variation (seasons=4) in water quality parameters (n=12) of the Damodar river between two reservoirs across four seasons. No significant variation in the water quality index (WQI) was observed among the 10 sites [F(9,27)=1.94, p=0.0875]. Water quality deteriorated at several pollution points but recovered significantly downstream. WQI varied significantly across the four seasons [F(3,27)=7.19, p=0.0011], with better water quality during the monsoon. The findings suggest that water quality can be restored downstream if there is sufficient inflow from upstream reservoirs or drainage of rainwater.

Keywords

Water quality index, Water pollution, Physico-chemical parameters, Damodar, Weighted arithmetic water quality index, Self-heal

References

  1. Singh, M.R. and Gupta, A. 2016. Water pollution-Sources, effects and control. 
  2. Kurunthachalam, S.K. 2013. Indian waters: Past and present. Hydrol. Curr. Res., S10: 001. DOI: 10. 4172/2157-7587.S10-001.
  3. NITI Aayog. 2019. Composite water management index. Ministry of Jal Shakti and Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, New Delhi.
  4. Brouwer, C., Hoevenaars, J.P.M., Van Bosch, B.E., Hatcho, N. and Heibloem, M. 1992. Irrigation water management: Training manual no. 6 – Scheme irrigation water needs and supply. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy.
  5. Loucks, D.P. and Van Beek, E. 2017. Water quality modeling and prediction. In Water resource systems planning and management: An introduction to methods, models and applications. Springer, Cham, pp. 417-467. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-44234-1.
  6. Dêbska, K., Rutkowska, B. and Szulc, W. 2021. The influence of a dam reservoir on water quality in a small lowland river, Env. Monit. Assess., 193: 123. DOI: 10.1007/s10661-021-08905-6.
  7. Akkaraboyina, M.K. and Raju, B.S.N. 2012. Assessment of water quality index of river Godavari at Rajahmundry, Universal J. Env. Res.Tech., 2(3): 161-167.
  8. Jacobs, H.L., Gabrielson, I.N., Horton, R.K., Lyon, W.A., Hubbard, E.C. and McCallum, G.E. 1965. Water quality criteria- Stream vs effluent standards. J. Water Poll. Contr. Fed., 37(3): 292-315.
  9. Uddin, M.G., Nash, S. and Olbert, A.I. 2021. A review of water quality index models and their use for assessing surface water quality. Ecol. Indicators. 122: 107218. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2020. 107218.
  10. Abbasi, T. and Abbasi, S. A. 2012. Water quality indices. Elsevier. DOI:10.1016/C2010-0-69472-7.
  11. Chandra, D. S., Asadi, S. S. and Raju, M. V. S. 2017. Estimation of water quality index by weighted arithmetic water quality index method: A model stu-dy. Int. J. Civil Eng. Tech., 8(4): 1215-1222.
  12. Das, B. and Jain, P. C. 2017. Real-time water quality monitoring system using internet of things. International conference on computer, communications and electronics (Comptelix). IEEE. Proceedings, pp 78-82. DOI: 10.1109/COMPTELIX.2017. 8003942.
  13. Jain, S. K., Agarwal, P. K. and Singh, V. P. 2007. Hydrology and water resources of India (vol 57). Springer Dordrecht. DOI: 10.1007/1-4020-5180-8.
  14. Seal, K., Chaudhuri, H., Pal, S., Srivastava, R.R. and Soldatova, E. 2022. A study on water pollution scenario of the Damodar river basin, India: assessment of potential health risk using long term database (1980–2019) and statistical analysis. Env. Sci. Poll. Res., 29(35): 53320-53352. DOI: 10.10 07/s11356-022-19402-9.
  15. Mondal, G. C., Singh, A. K. and Singh, T. B. 2018. Damodar river basin: storehouse of Indian coal. inThe Indian rivers: Scientific and socio-economic aspects. Ed Singh, D.S. Springer, Singapore. pp 259-272. DOI: 10.1007/978-981-10-2984-4_21.
  16. Haldar, D., Halder, S., Das, P. and Halder, G. 2018. Assessment of water quality of Damodar river in south Bengal region of India by Canadian Council of Ministers of Environment (CCME) water quality index: a case study, Desalination Water Treatment. 57(8): 3489-3502. DOI: 10.1080/19443994.201 4.987168.
  17. Haldar, S., Mandal, S.K., Thorat, R.B., Goel, S., Baxi, K.D., Parmer, N.P., Patel, V., Basha, S. and Mody, K.H. 2014. Water pollution of Sabarmati river—A harbinger to potential disaster. Env. monit. assess., 186: 2231-2242. DOI: 10.1007/s10661-013-35 32-5.
  18. Banerjee, U. S. and Gupta, S. 2010. Seasonal assessment of irrigation water suitability of river Damodar in West Bengal, India, J. Crop Weed. 6(1): 6-12.
  19. CIFRI. 1998. The river Damodar and its environment. Bulletin no. 79. Central Inland Capture Fisheries Research Institute, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Barrackpore.
  20. Banerjee, U. S. and Gupta, S. 2012. Assessment of significant sources influencing the variation of water quality of the river Damodar through factor analysis, Asian J. Water Env. Poll., 9(4): 87-94. DOI: 10.3233/AJW-2012-9_4_12.
  21. Dange, A. P. and Kalpana, K. 2022. Comparative study to assess environmental sanitation practices and its effect on health among people residing at selected rural and urban area of Rahata taluka. Int. J. Adv. Nursing Manage., 10(3): 182-188. DOI: 10. 52711/2454-2652.2022.00046.
  22. Banerjee, U. S. and Gupta, S. 2013. Impact of industrial waste effluents on river Damodar adjacent to Durgapur industrial complex, West Bengal, India, Env. monit. assess., 185: 2083-2094. DOI: 10.1007/s10661-012-2690-1.
  23. ICAR. 2022. Comprehensive district agriculture plan: Paschim Bardhaman for 2017-18 to 2019-20. Krishi Vigyan Kendra Burdwan, Central Research Institute for Jute and Allied Fibres, Indian Council of Agricultural Research.
  24. Biswas, S., Verma, A., Sendhil, R., Dixit, A.K., Singh, A. and Ponnusamy, K. 2022. Rainfall pattern analysis to depict the affects of climate change in West Bengal. Env. Ecol., 40(2): 410-417.
  25. Biswas, S. S. and Pani, P. 2021. Changes in the hydrological regime and channel morphology as the effects of dams and bridges in the Barakar river, India. Env. Earth Sci., 80: 209. DOI: 10.1007/s126 65-021-09490-0.
  26. APHA. 2005. Standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater (21st edn). American Public Health Association, Washington, DC.
  27. Jenkins, D. and Medsker, L.L. 1964. Brucine method for the determination of nitrate in ocean, estuarine and freshwaters, Anal. Chem., 36(3): 610-612. DOI: 10.1021/ac60209a016.
  28. Shah, K.A. and Joshi, G.S. 2017. Evaluation of water quality index for river Sabarmati, Gujarat, India. Appl. Water Sci., 7: 1349-1358. DOI: 10.10 07/s13201-015-0318-7.
  29. R core team. 2023. R: A language and environment for statistical computing, R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. Available at: https://www.R-project.org/.
  30. Chatterjee, C. and Raziuddin, M. 2001. Assessment of physico-chemical and microbiological status of river Nunia in relation to its impact on public health. J. Env. Poll., 8(3): 267-270.
  31. Dasa, K. and Lahirib, S. 2015. Industrial pollution assessment of Tamla rivulet in industrial town of Durgapur, West Bengal, India: Hazard analysis through GIS. Indian J. Biol., 2(2): 147.
  32. IS 10500. 2012. Drinking water specification (second revision). Bureau of Indian Standards, New Delhi, India.
  33. Avvannavar, S.M. and Shrihari, S. 2008. Evaluation of water quality index for drinking purposes for river Netravathi, Mangalore, South India. Env. monit. assess., 143: 279-290. DOI: 10.1007/s10 661-007-9977-7.
  34. Singh, R.K., Chaturvedi, A. and Kumari, K. 2019. Water-quality assessment of Damodar river and its tributaries and subtributaries in Dhanbad coal mining areas of India based on WQI. Sustain. Water Resour. Manage., 5: 381-386. DOI: 10.1007/s4089 9-017-0159-7.
  35. Verma, A. K. and Singh, T. N. 2013. Prediction of water quality from simple field parameters. Env. Earth Sci., 69: 821-829. DOI: 10.1007/s12665-012-1967-6.
  36. CPCB. 2014. Water quality standards. Central Pollution Control Board, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Govt. of India. Available at: http://cpcb.nic.in/index.php. Accessed on February 10, 2020.
  37. Jonah, U.E., Avoaja, D.A., Hanson, H.E. and Nnana, G.P. 2020. Studies on plankton diversity and water quality of a tropical rainforest river, Niger delta, Nigeria. Int. J. Fisheries Aquatic Studies. 8(3): 532-536.
  38. Karim, S. and De, S. K. 2019. Impact of dam on river discharge: A study on the Damodar river, Jharkhand. J. Indian Geomorphol., 6: 116-124.
  39. González, S.O., Almeida, C. A., Calderón, M., Mallea, M. A. and González, P. 2014. Assessment of the water self-purification capacity on a river affected by organic pollution: application of chemometrics in spatial and temporal variations. Env. Sci. Poll. Res., 21: 10583-10593. DOI: 10.1007/s1135 6-014-3098-y.
  40. De Menezes, J.P.C., Bittencourt, R.P., Farias, M.D.S., Bello, I.P., De Oliveira, L.F.C. and Fia, R. 2015. Deoxygenation rate, reaeration and potential for self-purification of a small tropical urban stream. Revista Ambiente Água. 10: 748-757. DOI: 10.4136/ambi-agua.1599.
  41. Singh, A. K., Mondal, G. C., Singh, P. K., Singh, S., Singh, T. B. and Tewary, B. K. 2005. Hydrochemistry of reservoirs of Damodar river basin, India: weathering processes and water quality assessment. Env. Geol., 48(8): 1014-1028. DOI: 10.1007/s00254-005-1302-6.
  42. Maity, S., Maiti, R. and Senapati, T. 2022. Evaluation of spatio-temporal variation of water quality and source identification of conducive parameters in Damodar river, India. Env. Monit. Assess., 194 (4): 308. DOI: 10.1007/s10661-022-09955-0.