Author : Pragati Rai

This research paper analyzes the quality of rain water collected at Dhanbad city (Jharkhand, India) by monitoring pH, conductivity, total hardness (TH), major anions (NO2-, NO3- and ), major cations (Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+ and K+), sodium absorption ratio (SAR), sodium percentage (Na%). The rain water has been analyzed at two different time period i.e, one during monsoon and second during winter to study the impact of air pollutant concentrations. The experimental result shows that pH value of rainwater samples ranges from 5.1 to 6.22 during monsoon while it ranges from 5.1 to 7.57 during winter indicating acidic nature. ratio 16.94 indicates that the increase in acidity of wet deposition has been attributed to the elevated SO2 and NO2 emissions from stationary and mobile pollution sources. TH of rainwater shows that rainwater is soft and can be used for drinking and domestic purposes. On average, the ion composition of the rainwater of studied region follows the sequence > NO3- > Na+ > K+ > Ca2+ > Mg2+ > NO2-. The analytical result shows that average wet deposition rate of sulfate ion i.e. 243.70 mg/m2/day which is higher than other ionic components.

Keywords: Acid rain, Wet deposition, Rain water quality, Rain water characterization, Gaseous pollutants on rain water quality

Article published in International Journal of Current  Engineering  and Technology, Vol.4,No.2 (April- 2014)