River water pollution is broadly considered an important ecological issue in developing countries like India. Population increases and water shortage in major Indian River basins is a major challenge in the current scenario. The study assessed Kali River water quality (RWQ) for 19 physicochemical variables, total coliform and 8 heavy metal concentrations in water and agriculture soils in western Uttar Pradesh, India. River water and soil samples were collected from 17 identified sampling sites (K<sub>1</sub>–K<sub>17</sub>) for two consecutive summers and winter in 2017–2018 and seasonal changes were measured. Environmetric (PCA & HCA) was used to find out major influence variables, pollution source apportionment as well as validation of dataset. The water quality index (WQI) and comprehensive pollution index (CPI) was calculated to determine their suitability for human consumption. Irrigation water quality (IWQ) indices such as SAR, Na%, RSC, PI, MH, and KI were also computed to assess its suitability for agricultural irrigation. Heavy metal concentrations in river water were higher in summer compared to winter and mean metal concentrations were observed in decreasing order Fe &gt;Mn&gt;Zn&gt;Pb&gt;Ni&gt;Cu&gt; Cr&gt; Cd. Analyzed heavy metals in agricultural soil were recorded as Fe&gt;Zn&gt;Mn&gt;Cu&gt;Ni&gt;Pb&gt;Cr&gt;Cd. WQI and CPI indicated that river stretch was good to unfit for human consumption and less to a severally polluted category, respectively. These indices and variables reveal that the higher percentages of water samples are suitable for irrigation and varied with seasonality. But poor water quality for irrigation downstream may cause an adverse effect on soil health and crop production. Overall, the study recommends cleaning and control on point sources in the middle and downstream river stretch is imperative for rejuvenation of river ecosystem, and monitoring and strict compliance of norms at ground level by the concerned authorities is an urgent need.

Environmetric and indices-based estimation of Kali River water for domestic and agricultural irrigation in northern India

ACS Spring 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.