Comparative Studies of Physico-Chemical Parameters of Two Reservoirs of Narmada River, MP, India

The present study was carried out for a period of one year from January 2012 to December 2012 to enumerate the various Physico-chemical parameters of Narmada River at Indra Sagar Dam and Omkareshwar Dam. Water samples were taken from sampling stations every month and were analyzed as per standard methods. At Punasa Dam Maxima of Chloride and Sulphate were observed during June, BOD and T.D.S in August, Total hardness in November, Temperature in May and PH was highest in March and April. At Omkareshwar Dam Maxima of BOD and Total hardness were recorded in October, Chloride in November, Sulphate in August, T.D.S and Temperature in July, Maxima of PH was recorded in February.

dams directly and indirectly influence a myriad of dynamic factors that affect habitat heterogeneity and successional trajectories and, ultimately the ecological integrity of river ecosystems (Ward and Stanford, 1995).

MATERIAL AND METHOD
The present study was conducted at two selected sampling stations viz., Indra Sagar Dam (Punasa) = S1,Omkareshwar Dam (Omkareshwar) = S2 in the Narmada River for the period of one year from January 2012 to December 2012 by taking the samples monthly with a view to assess the nature and degree of pollution.The sampling was done usually in morning hours between 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. and samples were collected from just below the water surface.At each of the station, three types of water samples-first from 200 m upstream, second from the confluence and third from 200 m downstream-were collected, for all physicochemical analysis.
In the analysis of the physico-chemical properties of water, standard method prescribed in

Total dissolved solids (TDS)
The TDS content of fresh water generally ranges from 10 to 500 mg/lit.The maximum permissible limit of TDS for drinking water is 500 mg/lit.In present study TDS, 136 mg/lit was the lowest value recorded at S2 in May and 360 highest value recorded at S1 in August (Fig- 3).Verma (2006) noted that in Narmada water 990 mg/lit TDS was the highest value recorded in August and 123 mg/ lit was the lowest value noted in September.

Total hardness
In present investigation the lowest value of total hardness 92.0 mg/lit recorded at S1 and S2 both in July and February, March respectively and Highest, 208 mg/lit at S2 in October (Fig- 4).Highest value In post monsoon might be due to settlement of anions and cations.Similar result was also reported by Zahoor et al., (2012).

Chloride
Chloride is one of the major inorganic anion in water and waste water.It is stored in most fresh water algal cells.Contamination of water from domestic sewage can be monitored by chloride essays of the concerned water bodies.In present study the values of chloride varied between 15.30 mg/l to 50.0 mg/l with minimum in September at S2 and Maximum in June at S1 (Fig- 5) .High values of chloride was seen in summer months.Present summer increases in chloride are in conformity with the earlier observations of Harshey et al., (1982).

Sulphate
The sulphate ion, SO 4-is usually second to carbonate as the principal anion in freshwaters, although chloride sometimes surpasses it.Atmospheric sources of sulphate have increased with man's industrial activities.Man now contributes about ten times more SO 2 than the annual contribution from volcanoes.In present study the values of sulphate varied between 0.43 mg/l to 7.1 mg/l with minimum in October at S2 and Maximum in April at S2 (Fig- 6).This finding matched with observation of Verma (2006) in Narmada River.

Biological oxygen demand (BOD)
The biochemical oxygen demand, abbreviated as BOD, is a test for measuring the amount of biodegradable organic material present in a sample of water.The acceptable BOD level in the raw water meant for treatment is 3 mg/lit while more than 2 mg/lit BOD indicated the non suitability of river water for domestic use as per Indian standards.In the present investigation the BOD was very low, 0.40 mg/lit, at S1 in November and was high, 2.14 mg/lit at S2 in May (Fig- 7).In the present study usually the BOD values were obtained maximum in summer months at all sampling stations, which might be due to high temperature, this intern promotes microbial activities and minimum BOD values obtained in winter might be due to low temperature and sufficient amount of water in the river.Similar observations were confirmed by many other workers such as Pathak and Mudgal (2005).

Fig 5 :Fig 6 :
Fig 1: Monthly variations of values of temperature (degree celcius) of water during January 2012 to December 2012 at different stations.

Fig 7 :
Fig 7: Monthly variations of values of BOD (mg/lit) of water during January 2012 to December 2012 at different stations.