Influence of physicochemical parameters on surface water quality: a case study of the Brahmani River,India

This investigation is intended to evaluate the surface water quality of Brahmani River in order to determine its uses for different purposes. The water samples were collected from the strategic locations of the river from February 2014 to July 2015 and analyzed for physicochemical parameters such as water temperature; pH; electrical conductivity (EC); dissolved oxygen (DO); total dissolved solids (TDS); major cations, e.g., Na⁺, K⁺, Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺; and major anions, e.g., F^?, Cl^?, ( {mathrm{SO}}_4^{2-} ), ( {mathrm{NO}}_3^{-} ), ( {mathrm{PO}}_4^{2-} ), and alkalinity. The water quality index (WQI) being a valuable and unique rating scale to depict the overall water quality status in a single term has been employed to determine the feasibility of using the river water as a source for various activities. The parameters with higher impact on water quality were selected to derive WQI of each selected sampling station. Results showed significant deterioration in quality of water at some of the sampling stations. WQI of Brahmani River ranged from 37.87 to 62.36 which falls in the range of good to poor quality of water. Pearson’s correlation matrix was derived to find possible interrelations among water quality parameters.