Author : Bharti Saini, Indu Mehrotra, Pradeep Kumar and Rishabha Verma

Water quality of 16 production wells at the bank of the river Ganga at Haridwar was evaluated in 2005-06. As a preparatory step for the Kumbh 2010, six more production wells were commissioned. A necessity was felt to assess the water quality from these new wells and a few existing production wells after a gap of 5 years. Twenty-three samples were collected monthly from four month during lean season (non-monsoon) where the water quality at the river is worsening in term of concentration except for turbidity. The analysed parameters for physical, chemical and bacteriological water quality parameters from the production wells were within the prescribe limits of BIS. The coliform count in the river water ranged from 160 to 16000 MPN/100 mL whereas 91% of samples drawn from the wells were devoid of coliform. Based on water quality analysis, production wells have been categorized in to north and south wells with reference to the new supply channel. Concentration of major ions in water from south wells is close to that of river water. However, water from wells in the north were found to have Ca, Mg, Na and alkalinity 3.2 to 5.5 times the concentration in the river water. Sulfate and chloride were respectively around 1.7 and 11.8 times more than the river water. An attempt has been made to explain the observed difference in water quality of wells on the basis of travel time and characteristics of river bed material.

Keywords: Riverbank filtration; Water quality; Production wells; Drinking water supplies.

Article published in International Journal of Current  Engineering  and Technology, Vol.3,No.4(Oct- 2013)