scholarly journals Status of water quality in Kathmandu valley

2004 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timila Bhaba Singh

The surface and subsurface water of the Kathmandu valley has been severely contaminated by various pollutants since the last fifteen years. Many factors have played their role in polluting the rivers and wells of the valley. The water quality monitoring of the Bagmati River and its tributaries revealed a strong seasonal variation. Ammonia, nitrate, phosphate, dissolved Oxygen, biological oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, and total suspended solids are the main determinants of river water pollution. Similarly, the water samples drawn from various deep tubewells, shallow wells, and springs reveal a remarkable contamination of groundwater. Most of the deep tubewells of the Kathmandu valley consist of a greater amount of ammonia and iron as well as higher turbidity and colour values than those of the WHO guideline values. The water analysis data of the Bagmati River and its tributaries show an increasing contamination trend in the densely populated areas. Minbhawan, The Hanumante Khola, Dhobi Khola, Tukucha, Teku, and the Bishnumati Khola are comparatively more polluted while the Nakhu Khola and Balkhu Khola are less contaminated. The quality of groundwater is also deteriorating day by day due to the inadequate precautions and facilities to treat sewage and wastewater.

1970 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 19-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dinesh C. Devkota ◽  
Kunio Watanabe

Haphazard dumping of solid waste on the banks of the Bishnumati River in the Kathmandu valley has severely deteriorated the surface and subsurface water quality. The river water as well as shallow wells in the vicinity exhibited very high conductivity as well as high nitrate, nitrite, and COD concentrations. Though the water in the shallow wells is not potable, it is being used by the inhabitants. Improper waste management has caused environmental pollution, increased public health hazard, and adversely impacted on urban economy.


Author(s):  
L. O. Bobor ◽  
C. M. Umeh

The indiscriminate disposal of industrial effluents and solid wastes in surface water bodies is detrimental to humans and aquatic organisms. Water quality monitoring is critical to identify pollutants of concern and develop effective management strategies. Hence, this study was conducted to assess the impact of waste disposal on the water quality of Aba Waterside River, Ogbor hill, Aba. Grab samples were collected upstream, midstream and downstream and some physicochemical and microbiological parameters were analyzed in accordance with standard methods for the analysis of water and wastewater. The results were compared with the Nigerian standard for drinking water quality and the national environmental effluent limitation regulations. Turbidity levels (10 -31mg/l) exceeded the maximum permissible levels for drinking water (5mg/l) and may be associated with higher levels of embedded disease-causing microbes and potentially harmful organic and inorganic substances. The biological oxygen demand midstream (1960mg/l) was remarkably high due to the effluent discharged from the abattoirs at that point. Fecal coliforms (3-198MPN/100ml) were detected in all samples, indicating the presence of other potentially harmful microorganisms. The findings of this study indicate that the water is unsuitable for direct drinking water purposes and stringent water quality control measures should be implemented.


2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-30
Author(s):  
Pradeep Kumar Shah ◽  
Shashi Bhushan Chaturwedi

 Water pollution, one of the serious environmental issues of the world, results from contaminants being introduced into the natural environment. This study was conducted in the Microbiology laboratory, DAV College, Dhobighat, Lalitpur, Nepal from January to May 2018 with aims to assess the physicochemical and microbiological status of river water of Kathmandu valley. All together 60 water samples were collected, 20 water samples each from different places of Bagmati river, Bishnumati river and river junction (Teku Dovan). The physicochemical parameters including pH, ammonia and iron, hardness and alkalinity were analyzed by standard methods and the microbiological parameters such as total mesophilic count and total coliform count were analyzed by pour plate technique. Among all 60 water samples tested, the temperature (12.8°C), BOD value (3.11 mg/l), iron value (0.87 mg/l) and turbidity (102.2NTU) were found to be highest in Bagmati river water samples whereas the value of TSS (755.2 mg/l), TDS (748.4 mg/l), copper (0.01 mg/l) and COD (911.5 PPM) were found to be highest in water of Bishnumati river. The heavy meals Manganese (0.29 mg/l) and Nickel (0.01 mg/l) were detected only in Bishnumati river water samples. The river junction water samples showed the exceeded value of DO (9.56 mg/l) and chloride (0.12 mg/l). All the 60 samples showed total mesophilic counts more than 300 cfu/ml and the average number of total mesophilic counts were found to be 5.21×106 cfu/ml. The average number of total coliform counts were found to be 2.1×105 cfu/ml in the water samples of Bagmati river, Bishnumati river and river junction. Most of the tested parameter of the samples had more than the standard value of water quality indicating the deterioration of river water quality and thus may affect the aquatic as well as human and animal lives.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Mochamad A. Pratama ◽  
Yan D. Immanuel ◽  
Dwinanti R. Marthanty

The efficacy of a water quality management strategy highly depends on the analysis of water quality data, which must be intensively analyzed from both spatial and temporal perspectives. This study aims to analyze spatial and temporal trends in water quality in Code River in Indonesia and correlate these with land use and land cover changes over a particular period. Water quality data consisting of 15 parameters and Landsat image data taken from 2011 to 2017 were collected and analyzed. We found that the concentrations of total dissolved solid, nitrite, nitrate, and zinc had increasing trends from upstream to downstream over time, whereas concentrations of parameter biological oxygen demand, cuprum, and fecal coliform consistently undermined water quality standards. This study also found that the proportion of natural vegetation land cover had a positive correlation with the quality of Code River’s water, whereas agricultural land and built-up areas were the most sensitive to water pollution in the river. Moreover, the principal component analysis of water quality data suggested that organic matter, metals, and domestic wastewater were the most important factors for explaining the total variability of water quality in Code River. This study demonstrates the application of a GIS-based multivariate analysis to the interpretation of water quality monitoring data, which could aid watershed stakeholders in developing data-driven intervention strategies for improving the water quality in rivers and streams.


2020 ◽  
Vol 135 (4) ◽  
pp. 2135-2185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guojun He ◽  
Shaoda Wang ◽  
Bing Zhang

Abstract This article estimates the effect of environmental regulation on firm productivity using a spatial regression discontinuity design implicit in China's water quality monitoring system. Because water quality readings are important for political evaluations and the monitoring stations only capture emissions from their upstream regions, local government officials are incentivized to enforce tighter environmental standards on firms immediately upstream of a monitoring station, rather than those immediately downstream. Exploiting this discontinuity in regulation stringency with novel firm-level geocoded emission and production data sets, we find that immediate upstream polluters face a more than 24% reduction in total factor productivity (TFP), and a more than 57% reduction in chemical oxygen demand emissions, as compared with their immediate downstream counterparts. We find that the discontinuity in TFP does not exist in nonpolluting industries, only emerged after the government explicitly linked political promotion to water quality readings, and was predominantly driven by prefectural cities with career-driven leaders. Linking the TFP estimate with the emission estimate, a back-of-the-envelope calculation indicates that China's water regulation efforts between 2000 and 2007 were associated with an economic cost of more than 800 billion Chinese yuan.


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